Inactive Context Management

ABSTRACT

A base station central unit (CU) sends, to a base station distributed unit (DU), a notification indicating release of configuration parameters for a small data transmission (SDT) procedure of a wireless device.

CROSS-REFERNCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/US2022/012429, filed Jan. 14, 2022, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 63/137,650, filed Jan. 14, 2021, all ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Examples of several of the various embodiments of the present disclosureare described herein with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B illustrate example mobile communication networks inwhich embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B respectively illustrate a New Radio (NR) user planeand control plane protocol stack.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of services provided between protocollayers of the NR user plane protocol stack of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example downlink data flow through the NR userplane protocol stack of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example format of a MAC subheader in a MAC PDU.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B respectively illustrate a mapping between logicalchannels, transport channels, and physical channels for the downlink anduplink.

FIG. 6 is an example diagram showing RRC state transitions of a UE.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example configuration of an NR frame into whichOFDM symbols are grouped.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example configuration of a slot in the time andfrequency domain for an NR carrier.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of bandwidth adaptation using threeconfigured BWPs for an NR carrier.

FIG. 10A illustrates three carrier aggregation configurations with twocomponent carriers.

FIG. 10B illustrates an example of how aggregated cells may beconfigured into one or more PUCCH groups.

FIG. 11A illustrates an example of an SS/PBCH block structure andlocation.

FIG. 11B illustrates an example of CSI-RSs that are mapped in the timeand frequency domains.

FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B respectively illustrate examples of three downlinkand uplink beam management procedures.

FIG. 13A, FIG. 13B, and FIG. 13C respectively illustrate a four-stepcontention-based random access procedure, a two-step contention-freerandom access procedure, and another two-step random access procedure.

FIG. 14A illustrates an example of CORESET configurations for abandwidth part.

FIG. 14B illustrates an example of a CCE-to-REG mapping for DCItransmission on a CORESET and PDCCH processing.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a wireless device in communicationwith a base station.

FIG. 16A, FIG. 16B, FIG. 16C, and FIG. 16D illustrate example structuresfor uplink and downlink transmission.

FIG. 17 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 18 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 19 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 20 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 21 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 22 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 23 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 24 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 25 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 26 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 27 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 28 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 29 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 30 is a diagram of an aspect of an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the present disclosure, various embodiments are presented as examplesof how the disclosed techniques may be implemented and/or how thedisclosed techniques may be practiced in environments and scenarios. Itwill be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that variouschanges in form and detail can be made therein without departing fromthe scope. In fact, after reading the description, it will be apparentto one skilled in the relevant art how to implement alternativeembodiments. The present embodiments should not be limited by any of thedescribed exemplary embodiments. The embodiments of the presentdisclosure will be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings. Limitations, features, and/or elements from the disclosedexample embodiments may be combined to create further embodiments withinthe scope of the disclosure. Any figures which highlight thefunctionality and advantages, are presented for example purposes only.The disclosed architecture is sufficiently flexible and configurable,such that it may be utilized in ways other than that shown. For example,the actions listed in any flowchart may be re-ordered or only optionallyused in some embodiments.

Embodiments may be configured to operate as needed. The disclosedmechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met, for example,in a wireless device, a base station, a radio environment, a network, acombination of the above, and/or the like. Example criteria may bebased, at least in part, on for example, wireless device or network nodeconfigurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes,traffic characteristics, a combination of the above, and/or the like.When the one or more criteria are met, various example embodiments maybe applied. Therefore, it may be possible to implement exampleembodiments that selectively implement disclosed protocols.

A base station may communicate with a mix of wireless devices. Wirelessdevices and/or base stations may support multiple technologies, and/ormultiple releases of the same technology. Wireless devices may have somespecific capability(ies) depending on wireless device category and/orcapability(ies). When this disclosure refers to a base stationcommunicating with a plurality of wireless devices, this disclosure mayrefer to a subset of the total wireless devices in a coverage area. Thisdisclosure may refer to, for example, a plurality of wireless devices ofa given LTE or 5G release with a given capability and in a given sectorof the base station. The plurality of wireless devices in thisdisclosure may refer to a selected plurality of wireless devices, and/ora subset of total wireless devices in a coverage area which performaccording to disclosed methods, and/or the like. There may be aplurality of base stations or a plurality of wireless devices in acoverage area that may not comply with the disclosed methods, forexample, those wireless devices or base stations may perform based onolder releases of LTE or 5G technology.

In this disclosure, “a” and “an” and similar phrases are to beinterpreted as “at least one” and “one or more.” Similarly, any termthat ends with the suffix “(s)” is to be interpreted as “at least one”and “one or more.” In this disclosure, the term “may” is to beinterpreted as “may, for example.” In other words, the term “may” isindicative that the phrase following the term “may” is an example of oneof a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, beemployed by one or more of the various embodiments. The terms“comprises” and “consists of”, as used herein, enumerate one or morecomponents of the element being described. The term “comprises” isinterchangeable with “includes” and does not exclude unenumeratedcomponents from being included in the element being described. Bycontrast, “consists of” provides a complete enumeration of the one ormore components of the element being described. The term “based on”, asused herein, should be interpreted as “based at least in part on” ratherthan, for example, “based solely on”. The term “and/or” as used hereinrepresents any possible combination of enumerated elements. For example,“A, B, and/or C” may represent A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A,B, and C.

If A and B are sets and every element of A is an element of B, A iscalled a subset of B. In this specification, only non-empty sets andsubsets are considered. For example, possible subsets of B={cell1,cell2} are: {cell1}, {cell2}, and {cell1, cell2}. The phrase “based on”(or equally “based at least on”) is indicative that the phrase followingthe term “based on” is an example of one of a multitude of suitablepossibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of thevarious embodiments. The phrase “in response to” (or equally “inresponse at least to”) is indicative that the phrase following thephrase “in response to” is an example of one of a multitude of suitablepossibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of thevarious embodiments. The phrase “depending on” (or equally “depending atleast to”) is indicative that the phrase following the phrase “dependingon” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities thatmay, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments.The phrase “employing/using” (or equally “employing/using at least”) isindicative that the phrase following the phrase “employing/using” is anexample of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or maynot, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments.

The term configured may relate to the capacity of a device whether thedevice is in an operational or non-operational state. Configured mayrefer to specific settings in a device that effect the operationalcharacteristics of the device whether the device is in an operational ornon-operational state. In other words, the hardware, software, firmware,registers, memory values, and/or the like may be “configured” within adevice, whether the device is in an operational or nonoperational state,to provide the device with specific characteristics. Terms such as “acontrol message to cause in a device” may mean that a control messagehas parameters that may be used to configure specific characteristics ormay be used to implement certain actions in the device, whether thedevice is in an operational or non-operational state.

In this disclosure, parameters (or equally called, fields, orInformation elements: IEs) may comprise one or more information objects,and an information object may comprise one or more other objects. Forexample, if parameter (IE) N comprises parameter (IE) M, and parameter(IE) M comprises parameter (IE) K, and parameter (IE) K comprisesparameter (information element) J. Then, for example, N comprises K, andN comprises J. In an example embodiment, when one or more messagescomprise a plurality of parameters, it implies that a parameter in theplurality of parameters is in at least one of the one or more messages,but does not have to be in each of the one or more messages.

Many features presented are described as being optional through the useof “may” or the use of parentheses. For the sake of brevity andlegibility, the present disclosure does not explicitly recite each andevery permutation that may be obtained by choosing from the set ofoptional features. The present disclosure is to be interpreted asexplicitly disclosing all such permutations. For example, a systemdescribed as having three optional features may be embodied in sevenways, namely with just one of the three possible features, with any twoof the three possible features or with three of the three possiblefeatures.

Many of the elements described in the disclosed embodiments may beimplemented as modules. A module is defined here as an element thatperforms a defined function and has a defined interface to otherelements. The modules described in this disclosure may be implemented inhardware, software in combination with hardware, firmware, wetware (e.g.hardware with a biological element) or a combination thereof, which maybe behaviorally equivalent. For example, modules may be implemented as asoftware routine written in a computer language configured to beexecuted by a hardware machine (such as C, C++, Fortran, Java, Basic,Matlab or the like) or a modeling/simulation program such as Simulink,Stateflow, GNU Octave, or Lab VIEWMathScript. It may be possible toimplement modules using physical hardware that incorporates discrete orprogrammable analog, digital and/or quantum hardware. Examples ofprogrammable hardware comprise: computers, microcontrollers,microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs); fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs); and complex programmable logic devices(CPLDs). Computers, microcontrollers and microprocessors are programmedusing languages such as assembly, C, C++ or the like. FPGAs, ASICs andCPLDs are often programmed using hardware description languages (HDL)such as VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) or Verilog thatconfigure connections between internal hardware modules with lesserfunctionality on a programmable device. The mentioned technologies areoften used in combination to achieve the result of a functional module.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example of a mobile communication network 100 inwhich embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Themobile communication network 100 may be, for example, a public landmobile network (PLMN) run by a network operator. As illustrated in FIG.1A, the mobile communication network 100 includes a core network (CN)102, a radio access network (RAN) 104, and a wireless device 106.

The CN 102 may provide the wireless device 106 with an interface to oneor more data networks (DNs), such as public DNs (e.g., the Internet),private DNs, and/or intra-operator DNs. As part of the interfacefunctionality, the CN 102 may set up end-to-end connections between thewireless device 106 and the one or more DNs, authenticate the wirelessdevice 106, and provide charging functionality.

The RAN 104 may connect the CN 102 to the wireless device 106 throughradio communications over an air interface. As part of the radiocommunications, the RAN 104 may provide scheduling, radio resourcemanagement, and retransmission protocols. The communication directionfrom the RAN 104 to the wireless device 106 over the air interface isknown as the downlink and the communication direction from the wirelessdevice 106 to the RAN 104 over the air interface is known as the uplink.Downlink transmissions may be separated from uplink transmissions usingfrequency division duplexing (FDD), time-division duplexing (TDD),and/or some combination of the two duplexing techniques.

The term wireless device may be used throughout this disclosure to referto and encompass any mobile device or fixed (non-mobile) device forwhich wireless communication is needed or usable. For example, awireless device may be a telephone, smart phone, tablet, computer,laptop, sensor, meter, wearable device, Internet of Things (IoT) device,vehicle road side unit (RSU), relay node, automobile, and/or anycombination thereof. The term wireless device encompasses otherterminology, including user equipment (UE), user terminal (UT), accessterminal (AT), mobile station, handset, wireless transmit and receiveunit (WTRU), and/or wireless communication device.

The RAN 104 may include one or more base stations (not shown). The termbase station may be used throughout this disclosure to refer to andencompass a Node B (associated with UMTS and/or 3G standards), anEvolved Node B (eNB, associated with E-UTRA and/or 4G standards), aremote radio head (RRH), a baseband processing unit coupled to one ormore RRHs, a repeater node or relay node used to extend the coveragearea of a donor node, a Next Generation Evolved Node B (ng-eNB), aGeneration Node B (gNB, associated with NR and/or 5G standards), anaccess point (AP, associated with, for example, WiFi or any othersuitable wireless communication standard), and/or any combinationthereof. A base station may comprise at least one gNB Central Unit(gNB-CU) and at least one a gNB Distributed Unit (gNB-DU).

A base station included in the RAN 104 may include one or more sets ofantennas for communicating with the wireless device 106 over the airinterface. For example, one or more of the base stations may includethree sets of antennas to respectively control three cells (or sectors).The size of a cell may be determined by a range at which a receiver(e.g., a base station receiver) can successfully receive thetransmissions from a transmitter (e.g., a wireless device transmitter)operating in the cell. Together, the cells of the base stations mayprovide radio coverage to the wireless device 106 over a wide geographicarea to support wireless device mobility.

In addition to three-sector sites, other implementations of basestations are possible. For example, one or more of the base stations inthe RAN 104 may be implemented as a sectored site with more or less thanthree sectors. One or more of the base stations in the RAN 104 may beimplemented as an access point, as a baseband processing unit coupled toseveral remote radio heads (RRHs), and/or as a repeater or relay nodeused to extend the coverage area of a donor node. A baseband processingunit coupled to RRHs may be part of a centralized or cloud RANarchitecture, where the baseband processing unit may be eithercentralized in a pool of baseband processing units or virtualized. Arepeater node may amplify and rebroadcast a radio signal received from adonor node. A relay node may perform the same/similar functions as arepeater node but may decode the radio signal received from the donornode to remove noise before amplifying and rebroadcasting the radiosignal.

The RAN 104 may be deployed as a homogenous network of macrocell basestations that have similar antenna patterns and similar high-leveltransmit powers. The RAN 104 may be deployed as a heterogeneous network.In heterogeneous networks, small cell base stations may be used toprovide small coverage areas, for example, coverage areas that overlapwith the comparatively larger coverage areas provided by macrocell basestations. The small coverage areas may be provided in areas with highdata traffic (or so-called “hotspots”) or in areas with weak macrocellcoverage. Examples of small cell base stations include, in order ofdecreasing coverage area, microcell base stations, picocell basestations, and femtocell base stations or home base stations.

The Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was formed in 1998 toprovide global standardization of specifications for mobilecommunication networks similar to the mobile communication network 100in FIG. 1A. To date, 3GPP has produced specifications for threegenerations of mobile networks: a third generation (3G) network known asUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a fourth generation(4G) network known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), and a fifth generation(5G) network known as 5G System (5GS). Embodiments of the presentdisclosure are described with reference to the RAN of a 3GPP 5G network,referred to as next-generation RAN (NG-RAN). Embodiments may beapplicable to RANs of other mobile communication networks, such as theRAN 104 in FIG. 1A, the RANs of earlier 3G and 4G networks, and those offuture networks yet to be specified (e.g., a 3GPP 6G network). NG-RANimplements 5G radio access technology known as New Radio (NR) and may beprovisioned to implement 4G radio access technology or other radioaccess technologies, including non-3GPP radio access technologies.

FIG. 1B illustrates another example mobile communication network 150 inwhich embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Mobilecommunication network 150 may be, for example, a PLMN run by a networkoperator. As illustrated in FIG. 1B, mobile communication network 150includes a 5G core network (5G-CN) 152, an NG-RAN 154, and UEs 156A and156B (collectively UEs 156). These components may be implemented andoperate in the same or similar manner as corresponding componentsdescribed with respect to FIG. 1A.

The 5G-CN 152 provides the UEs 156 with an interface to one or more DNs,such as public DNs (e.g., the Internet), private DNs, and/orintra-operator DNs. As part of the interface functionality, the 5G-CN152 may set up end-to-end connections between the UEs 156 and the one ormore DNs, authenticate the UEs 156, and provide charging functionality.Compared to the CN of a 3GPP 4G network, the basis of the 5G-CN 152 maybe a service-based architecture. This means that the architecture of thenodes making up the 5G-CN 152 may be defined as network functions thatoffer services via interfaces to other network functions. The networkfunctions of the 5G-CN 152 may be implemented in several ways, includingas network elements on dedicated or shared hardware, as softwareinstances running on dedicated or shared hardware, or as virtualizedfunctions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud-based platform).

As illustrated in FIG. 1B, the 5G-CN 152 includes an Access and MobilityManagement Function (AMF) 158A and a User Plane Function (UPF) 158B,which are shown as one component AMF/UPF 158 in FIG. 1B for ease ofillustration. The UPF 158B may serve as a gateway between the NG-RAN 154and the one or more DNs. The UPF 158B may perform functions such aspacket routing and forwarding, packet inspection and user plane policyrule enforcement, traffic usage reporting, uplink classification tosupport routing of traffic flows to the one or more DNs, quality ofservice (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering,gating, uplink/downlink rate enforcement, and uplink trafficverification), downlink packet buffering, and downlink data notificationtriggering. The UPF 158B may serve as an anchor point forintra-/inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) mobility, an externalprotocol (or packet) data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect tothe one or more DNs, and/or a branching point to support a multi-homedPDU session. The UEs 156 may be configured to receive services through aPDU session, which is a logical connection between a UE and a DN.

The AMF 158A may perform functions such as Non-Access Stratum (NAS)signaling termination, NAS signaling security, Access Stratum (AS)security control, inter-CN node signaling for mobility between 3GPPaccess networks, idle mode UE reachability (e.g., control and executionof paging retransmission), registration area management, intra-systemand inter-system mobility support, access authentication, accessauthorization including checking of roaming rights, mobility managementcontrol (subscription and policies), network slicing support, and/orsession management function (SMF) selection. NAS may refer to thefunctionality operating between a CN and a UE, and AS may refer to thefunctionality operating between the UE and a RAN.

The 5G-CN 152 may include one or more additional network functions thatare not shown in FIG. 1B for the sake of clarity. For example, the 5G-CN152 may include one or more of a Session Management Function (SMF), anNR Repository Function (NRF), a Policy Control Function (PCF), a NetworkExposure Function (NEF), a Unified Data Management (UDM), an ApplicationFunction (AF), and/or an Authentication Server Function (AUSF).

The NG-RAN 154 may connect the 5G-CN 152 to the UEs 156 through radiocommunications over the air interface. The NG-RAN 154 may include one ormore gNB s, illustrated as gNB 160A and gNB 160B (collectively gNBs 160)and/or one or more ng-eNB s, illustrated as ng-eNB 162A and ng-eNB 162B(collectively ng-eNB s 162). The gNBs 160 and ng-eNBs 162 may be moregenerically referred to as base stations. The gNBs 160 and ng-eNBs 162may include one or more sets of antennas for communicating with the UEs156 over an air interface. For example, one or more of the gNBs 160and/or one or more of the ng-eNBs 162 may include three sets of antennasto respectively control three cells (or sectors). Together, the cells ofthe gNBs 160 and the ng-eNBs 162 may provide radio coverage to the UEs156 over a wide geographic area to support UE mobility.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the gNBs 160 and/or the ng-eNBs 162 may beconnected to the 5G-CN 152 by means of an NG interface and to other basestations by an Xn interface. The NG and Xn interfaces may be establishedusing direct physical connections and/or indirect connections over anunderlying transport network, such as an internet protocol (IP)transport network. The gNBs 160 and/or the ng-eNBs 162 may be connectedto the UEs 156 by means of a Uu interface. For example, as illustratedin FIG. 1B, gNB 160A may be connected to the UE 156A by means of a Uuinterface. The NG, Xn, and Uu interfaces are associated with a protocolstack. The protocol stacks associated with the interfaces may be used bythe network elements in FIG. 1B to exchange data and signaling messagesand may include two planes: a user plane and a control plane. The userplane may handle data of interest to a user. The control plane mayhandle signaling messages of interest to the network elements.

The gNBs 160 and/or the ng-eNBs 162 may be connected to one or moreAMF/UPF functions of the 5G-CN 152, such as the AMF/UPF 158, by means ofone or more NG interfaces. For example, the gNB 160A may be connected tothe UPF 158B of the AMF/UPF 158 by means of an NG-User plane (NG-U)interface. The NG-U interface may provide delivery (e.g., non-guaranteeddelivery) of user plane PDUs between the gNB 160A and the UPF 158B. ThegNB 160A may be connected to the AMF 158A by means of an NG-Controlplane (NG-C) interface. The NG-C interface may provide, for example, NGinterface management, UE context management, UE mobility management,transport of NAS messages, paging, PDU session management, andconfiguration transfer and/or warning message transmission.

The gNBs 160 may provide NR user plane and control plane protocolterminations towards the UEs 156 over the Uu interface. For example, thegNB 160A may provide NR user plane and control plane protocolterminations toward the UE 156A over a Uu interface associated with afirst protocol stack. The ng-eNBs 162 may provide Evolved UMTSTerrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocolterminations towards the UEs 156 over a Uu interface, where E-UTRArefers to the 3GPP 4G radio-access technology. For example, the ng-eNB162B may provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocolterminations towards the UE 156B over a Uu interface associated with asecond protocol stack.

The 5G-CN 152 was described as being configured to handle NR and 4Gradio accesses. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in theart that it may be possible for NR to connect to a 4G core network in amode known as “non-standalone operation.” In non-standalone operation, a4G core network is used to provide (or at least support) control-planefunctionality (e.g., initial access, mobility, and paging). Althoughonly one AMF/UPF 158 is shown in FIG. 1B, one gNB or ng-eNB may beconnected to multiple AMF/UPF nodes to provide redundancy and/or to loadshare across the multiple AMF/UPF nodes.

As discussed, an interface (e.g., Uu, Xn, and NG interfaces) between thenetwork elements in FIG. 1B may be associated with a protocol stack thatthe network elements use to exchange data and signaling messages. Aprotocol stack may include two planes: a user plane and a control plane.The user plane may handle data of interest to a user, and the controlplane may handle signaling messages of interest to the network elements.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B respectively illustrate examples of NR user planeand NR control plane protocol stacks for the Uu interface that liesbetween a UE 210 and a gNB 220. The protocol stacks illustrated in FIG.2A and FIG. 2B may be the same or similar to those used for the Uuinterface between, for example, the UE 156A and the gNB 160A shown inFIG. 1B.

FIG. 2A illustrates a NR user plane protocol stack comprising fivelayers implemented in the UE 210 and the gNB 220. At the bottom of theprotocol stack, physical layers (PHYs) 211 and 221 may provide transportservices to the higher layers of the protocol stack and may correspondto layer 1 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. The nextfour protocols above PHYs 211 and 221 comprise media access controllayers (MACs) 212 and 222, radio link control layers (RLCs) 213 and 223,packet data convergence protocol layers (PDCPs) 214 and 224, and servicedata application protocol layers (SDAPs) 215 and 225. Together, thesefour protocols may make up layer 2, or the data link layer, of the OSImodel.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of services provided between protocollayers of the NR user plane protocol stack. Starting from the top ofFIG. 2A and FIG. 3, the SDAPs 215 and 225 may perform QoS flow handling.The UE 210 may receive services through a PDU session, which may be alogical connection between the UE 210 and a DN. The PDU session may haveone or more QoS flows. A UPF of a CN (e.g., the UPF 158B) may map IPpackets to the one or more QoS flows of the PDU session based on QoSrequirements (e.g., in terms of delay, data rate, and/or error rate).The SDAPs 215 and 225 may perform mapping/de-mapping between the one ormore QoS flows and one or more data radio bearers. Themapping/de-mapping between the QoS flows and the data radio bearers maybe determined by the SDAP 225 at the gNB 220. The SDAP 215 at the UE 210may be informed of the mapping between the QoS flows and the data radiobearers through reflective mapping or control signaling received fromthe gNB 220. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 225 at the gNB 220 maymark the downlink packets with a QoS flow indicator (QFI), which may beobserved by the SDAP 215 at the UE 210 to determine themapping/de-mapping between the QoS flows and the data radio bearers.

The PDCPs 214 and 224 may perform header compression/decompression toreduce the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the airinterface, ciphering/deciphering to prevent unauthorized decoding ofdata transmitted over the air interface, and integrity protection (toensure control messages originate from intended sources. The PDCPs 214and 224 may perform retransmissions of undelivered packets, in-sequencedelivery and reordering of packets, and removal of packets received induplicate due to, for example, an intra-gNB handover. The PDCPs 214 and224 may perform packet duplication to improve the likelihood of thepacket being received and, at the receiver, remove any duplicatepackets. Packet duplication may be useful for services that require highreliability.

Although not shown in FIG. 3, PDCPs 214 and 224 may performmapping/de-mapping between a split radio bearer and RLC channels in adual connectivity scenario. Dual connectivity is a technique that allowsa UE to connect to two cells or, more generally, two cell groups: amaster cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG). A split beareris when a single radio bearer, such as one of the radio bearers providedby the PDCPs 214 and 224 as a service to the SDAPs 215 and 225, ishandled by cell groups in dual connectivity. The PDCPs 214 and 224 maymap/de-map the split radio bearer between RLC channels belonging to cellgroups.

The RLCs 213 and 223 may perform segmentation, retransmission throughAutomatic Repeat Request (ARQ), and removal of duplicate data unitsreceived from MACs 212 and 222, respectively. The RLCs 213 and 223 maysupport three transmission modes: transparent mode (TM); unacknowledgedmode (UM); and acknowledged mode (AM). Based on the transmission mode anRLC is operating, the RLC may perform one or more of the notedfunctions. The RLC configuration may be per logical channel with nodependency on numerologies and/or Transmission Time Interval (TTI)durations. As shown in FIG. 3, the RLCs 213 and 223 may provide RLCchannels as a service to PDCPs 214 and 224, respectively.

The MACs 212 and 222 may perform multiplexing/demultiplexing of logicalchannels and/or mapping between logical channels and transport channels.The multiplexing/demultiplexing may include multiplexing/demultiplexingof data units, belonging to the one or more logical channels, into/fromTransport Blocks (TBs) delivered to/from the PHYs 211 and 221. The MAC222 may be configured to perform scheduling, scheduling informationreporting, and priority handling between UEs by means of dynamicscheduling. Scheduling may be performed in the gNB 220 (at the MAC 222)for downlink and uplink. The MACs 212 and 222 may be configured toperform error correction through Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ)(e.g., one HARQ entity per carrier in case of Carrier Aggregation (CA)),priority handling between logical channels of the UE 210 by means oflogical channel prioritization, and/or padding. The MACs 212 and 222 maysupport one or more numerologies and/or transmission timings. In anexample, mapping restrictions in a logical channel prioritization maycontrol which numerology and/or transmission timing a logical channelmay use. As shown in FIG. 3, the MACs 212 and 222 may provide logicalchannels as a service to the RLCs 213 and 223.

The PHYs 211 and 221 may perform mapping of transport channels tophysical channels and digital and analog signal processing functions forsending and receiving information over the air interface. These digitaland analog signal processing functions may include, for example,coding/decoding and modulation/demodulation. The PHYs 211 and 221 mayperform multi-antenna mapping. As shown in FIG. 3, the PHYs 211 and 221may provide one or more transport channels as a service to the MACs 212and 222.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example downlink data flow through the NR userplane protocol stack. FIG. 4A illustrates a downlink data flow of threeIP packets (n, n+1, and m) through the NR user plane protocol stack togenerate two TBs at the gNB 220. An uplink data flow through the NR userplane protocol stack may be similar to the downlink data flow depictedin FIG. 4A.

The downlink data flow of FIG. 4A begins when SDAP 225 receives thethree IP packets from one or more QoS flows and maps the three packetsto radio bearers. In FIG. 4A, the SDAP 225 maps IP packets n and n+1 toa first radio bearer 402 and maps IP packet m to a second radio bearer404. An SDAP header (labeled with an “H” in FIG. 4A) is added to an IPpacket. The data unit from/to a higher protocol layer is referred to asa service data unit (SDU) of the lower protocol layer and the data unitto/from a lower protocol layer is referred to as a protocol data unit(PDU) of the higher protocol layer. As shown in FIG. 4A, the data unitfrom the SDAP 225 is an SDU of lower protocol layer PDCP 224 and is aPDU of the SDAP 225.

The remaining protocol layers in FIG. 4A may perform their associatedfunctionality (e.g., with respect to FIG. 3), add corresponding headers,and forward their respective outputs to the next lower layer. Forexample, the PDCP 224 may perform IP-header compression and cipheringand forward its output to the RLC 223. The RLC 223 may optionallyperform segmentation (e.g., as shown for IP packet m in FIG. 4A) andforward its output to the MAC 222. The MAC 222 may multiplex a number ofRLC PDUs and may attach a MAC subheader to an RLC PDU to form atransport block. In NR, the MAC subheaders may be distributed across theMAC PDU, as illustrated in FIG. 4A. In LTE, the MAC subheaders may beentirely located at the beginning of the MAC PDU. The NR MAC PDUstructure may reduce processing time and associated latency because theMAC PDU subheaders may be computed before the full MAC PDU is assembled.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example format of a MAC subheader in a MAC PDU.The MAC subheader includes: an SDU length field for indicating thelength (e.g., in bytes) of the MAC SDU to which the MAC subheadercorresponds; a logical channel identifier (LCID) field for identifyingthe logical channel from which the MAC SDU originated to aid in thedemultiplexing process; a flag (F) for indicating the size of the SDUlength field; and a reserved bit (R) field for future use.

FIG. 4B further illustrates MAC control elements (CEs) inserted into theMAC PDU by a MAC, such as MAC 223 or MAC 222. For example, FIG. 4Billustrates two MAC CEs inserted into the MAC PDU. MAC CEs may beinserted at the beginning of a MAC PDU for downlink transmissions (asshown in FIG. 4B) and at the end of a MAC PDU for uplink transmissions.MAC CEs may be used for in-band control signaling. Example MAC CEsinclude: scheduling-related MAC CEs, such as buffer status reports andpower headroom reports; activation/deactivation MAC CEs, such as thosefor activation/deactivation of PDCP duplication detection, channel stateinformation (CSI) reporting, sounding reference signal (SRS)transmission, and prior configured components; discontinuous reception(DRX) related MAC CEs; timing advance MAC CEs; and random access relatedMAC CEs. A MAC CE may be preceded by a MAC subheader with a similarformat as described for MAC SDUs and may be identified with a reservedvalue in the LCID field that indicates the type of control informationincluded in the MAC CE.

Before describing the NR control plane protocol stack, logical channels,transport channels, and physical channels are first described as well asa mapping between the channel types. One or more of the channels may beused to carry out functions associated with the NR control planeprotocol stack described later below.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B illustrate, for downlink and uplink respectively, amapping between logical channels, transport channels, and physicalchannels. Information is passed through channels between the RLC, theMAC, and the PHY of the NR protocol stack. A logical channel may be usedbetween the RLC and the MAC and may be classified as a control channelthat carries control and configuration information in the NR controlplane or as a traffic channel that carries data in the NR user plane. Alogical channel may be classified as a dedicated logical channel that isdedicated to a specific UE or as a common logical channel that may beused by more than one UE. A logical channel may also be defined by thetype of information it carries. The set of logical channels defined byNR include, for example:

-   -   a paging control channel (PCCH) for carrying paging messages        used to page a UE whose location is not known to the network on        a cell level;    -   a broadcast control channel (BCCH) for carrying system        information messages in the form of a master information block        (MIB) and several system information blocks (SIBs), wherein the        system information messages may be used by the UEs to obtain        information about how a cell is configured and how to operate        within the cell;    -   a common control channel (CCCH) for carrying control messages        together with random access;    -   a dedicated control channel (DCCH) for carrying control messages        to/from a specific the UE to configure the UE; and    -   a dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) for carrying user data        to/from a specific the UE.

Transport channels are used between the MAC and PHY layers and may bedefined by how the information they carry is transmitted over the airinterface. The set of transport channels defined by NR include, forexample:

-   -   a paging channel (PCH) for carrying paging messages that        originated from the PCCH;    -   a broadcast channel (BCH) for carrying the MIB from the BCCH;    -   a downlink shared channel (DL-SCH) for carrying downlink data        and signaling messages, including the SIBs from the BCCH;    -   an uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) for carrying uplink data and        signaling messages; and    -   a random access channel (RACH) for allowing a UE to contact the        network without any prior scheduling.

The PHY may use physical channels to pass information between processinglevels of the PHY. A physical channel may have an associated set oftime-frequency resources for carrying the information of one or moretransport channels. The PHY may generate control information to supportthe low-level operation of the PHY and provide the control informationto the lower levels of the PHY via physical control channels, known asL1/L2 control channels. The set of physical channels and physicalcontrol channels defined by NR include, for example:

-   -   a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) for carrying the MIB from        the BCH;    -   a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for carrying downlink        data and signaling messages from the DL-SCH, as well as paging        messages from the PCH;    -   a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for carrying        downlink control information (DCI), which may include downlink        scheduling commands, uplink scheduling grants, and uplink power        control commands;    -   a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for carrying uplink        data and signaling messages from the UL-SCH and in some        instances uplink control information (UCI) as described below;    -   a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for carrying UCI,        which may include HARQ acknowledgments, channel quality        indicators (CQI), pre-coding matrix indicators (PMI), rank        indicators (RI), and scheduling requests (SR); and    -   a physical random access channel (PRACH) for random access.

Similar to the physical control channels, the physical layer generatesphysical signals to support the low-level operation of the physicallayer. As shown in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, the physical layer signalsdefined by NR include: primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondarysynchronization signals (SSS), channel state information referencesignals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), soundingreference signals (SRS), and phase-tracking reference signals (PT-RS).These physical layer signals will be described in greater detail below.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example NR control plane protocol stack. As shownin FIG. 2B, the NR control plane protocol stack may use the same/similarfirst four protocol layers as the example NR user plane protocol stack.These four protocol layers include the PHYs 211 and 221, the MACs 212and 222, the RLCs 213 and 223, and the PDCPs 214 and 224. Instead ofhaving the SDAPs 215 and 225 at the top of the stack as in the NR userplane protocol stack, the NR control plane stack has radio resourcecontrols (RRCs) 216 and 226 and NAS protocols 217 and 237 at the top ofthe NR control plane protocol stack.

The NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionalitybetween the UE 210 and the AMF 230 (e.g., the AMF 158A) or, moregenerally, between the UE 210 and the CN. The NAS protocols 217 and 237may provide control plane functionality between the UE 210 and the AMF230 via signaling messages, referred to as NAS messages. There is nodirect path between the UE 210 and the AMF 230 through which the NASmessages can be transported. The NAS messages may be transported usingthe AS of the Uu and NG interfaces. NAS protocols 217 and 237 mayprovide control plane functionality such as authentication, security,connection setup, mobility management, and session management.

The RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionality between theUE 210 and the gNB 220 or, more generally, between the UE 210 and theRAN. The RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionalitybetween the UE 210 and the gNB 220 via signaling messages, referred toas RRC messages. RRC messages may be transmitted between the UE 210 andthe RAN using signaling radio bearers and the same/similar PDCP, RLC,MAC, and PHY protocol layers. The MAC may multiplex control-plane anduser-plane data into the same transport block (TB). The RRCs 216 and 226may provide control plane functionality such as: broadcast of systeminformation related to AS and NAS; paging initiated by the CN or theRAN; establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection betweenthe UE 210 and the RAN; security functions including key management;establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of signaling radiobearers and data radio bearers; mobility functions; QoS managementfunctions; the UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting;detection of and recovery from radio link failure (RLF); and/or NASmessage transfer. As part of establishing an RRC connection, RRCs 216and 226 may establish an RRC context, which may involve configuringparameters for communication between the UE 210 and the RAN.

FIG. 6 is an example diagram showing RRC state transitions of a UE. TheUE may be the same or similar to the wireless device 106 depicted inFIG. 1A, the UE 210 depicted in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, or any otherwireless device described in the present disclosure. As illustrated inFIG. 6, a UE may be in at least one of three RRC states: RRC connected602 (e.g., RRC_CONNECTED), RRC idle 604 (e.g., RRC_IDLE), and RRCinactive 606 (e.g., RRC_INACTIVE).

In RRC connected 602, the UE has an established RRC context and may haveat least one RRC connection with a base station. The base station may besimilar to one of the one or more base stations included in the RAN 104depicted in FIG. 1A, one of the gNBs 160 or ng-eNBs 162 depicted in FIG.1B, the gNB 220 depicted in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, or any other basestation described in the present disclosure. The base station with whichthe UE is connected may have the RRC context for the UE. The RRCcontext, referred to as the UE context, may comprise parameters forcommunication between the UE and the base station. These parameters mayinclude, for example: one or more AS contexts; one or more radio linkconfiguration parameters; bearer configuration information (e.g.,relating to a data radio bearer, signaling radio bearer, logicalchannel, QoS flow, and/or PDU session); security information; and/orPHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and/or SDAP layer configuration information. Whilein RRC connected 602, mobility of the UE may be managed by the RAN(e.g., the RAN 104 or the NG-RAN 154). The UE may measure the signallevels (e.g., reference signal levels) from a serving cell andneighboring cells and report these measurements to the base stationcurrently serving the UE. The UE's serving base station may request ahandover to a cell of one of the neighboring base stations based on thereported measurements. The RRC state may transition from RRC connected602 to RRC idle 604 through a connection release procedure 608 or to RRCinactive 606 through a connection inactivation procedure 610.

In RRC idle 604, an RRC context may not be established for the UE. InRRC idle 604, the UE may not have an RRC connection with the basestation. While in RRC idle 604, the UE may be in a sleep state for themajority of the time (e.g., to conserve battery power). The UE may wakeup periodically (e.g., once in every discontinuous reception cycle) tomonitor for paging messages from the RAN. Mobility of the UE may bemanaged by the UE through a procedure known as cell reselection. The RRCstate may transition from RRC idle 604 to RRC connected 602 through aconnection establishment procedure 612, which may involve a randomaccess procedure as discussed in greater detail below.

In RRC inactive 606, the RRC context previously established ismaintained in the UE and the base station. This allows for a fasttransition to RRC connected 602 with reduced signaling overhead ascompared to the transition from RRC idle 604 to RRC connected 602. Whilein RRC inactive 606, the UE may be in a sleep state and mobility of theUE may be managed by the UE through cell reselection. The RRC state maytransition from RRC inactive 606 to RRC connected 602 through aconnection resume procedure 614 or to RRC idle 604 though a connectionrelease procedure 616 that may be the same as or similar to connectionrelease procedure 608.

An RRC state may be associated with a mobility management mechanism. InRRC idle 604 and RRC inactive 606, mobility is managed by the UE throughcell reselection. The purpose of mobility management in RRC idle 604 andRRC inactive 606 is to allow the network to be able to notify the UE ofan event via a paging message without having to broadcast the pagingmessage over the entire mobile communications network. The mobilitymanagement mechanism used in RRC idle 604 and RRC inactive 606 may allowthe network to track the UE on a cell-group level so that the pagingmessage may be broadcast over the cells of the cell group that the UEcurrently resides within instead of the entire mobile communicationnetwork. The mobility management mechanisms for RRC idle 604 and RRCinactive 606 track the UE on a cell-group level. They may do so usingdifferent granularities of grouping. For example, there may be threelevels of cell-grouping granularity: individual cells; cells within aRAN area identified by a RAN area identifier (RAI); and cells within agroup of RAN areas, referred to as a tracking area and identified by atracking area identifier (TAI).

Tracking areas may be used to track the UE at the CN level. The CN(e.g., the CN 102 or the 5G-CN 152) may provide the UE with a list ofTAIs associated with a UE registration area. If the UE moves, throughcell reselection, to a cell associated with a TAI not included in thelist of TAIs associated with the UE registration area, the UE mayperform a registration update with the CN to allow the CN to update theUE's location and provide the UE with a new the UE registration area.

RAN areas may be used to track the UE at the RAN level. For a UE in RRCinactive 606 state, the UE may be assigned a RAN notification area. ARAN notification area may comprise one or more cell identities, a listof RAIs, or a list of TAIs. In an example, a base station may belong toone or more RAN notification areas. In an example, a cell may belong toone or more RAN notification areas. If the UE moves, through cellreselection, to a cell not included in the RAN notification areaassigned to the UE, the UE may perform a notification area update withthe RAN to update the UE's RAN notification area.

A base station storing an RRC context for a UE or a last serving basestation of the UE may be referred to as an anchor base station. Ananchor base station may maintain an RRC context for the UE at leastduring a period of time that the UE stays in a RAN notification area ofthe anchor base station and/or during a period of time that the UE staysin RRC inactive 606.

A gNB, such as gNBs 160 in FIG. 1B, may be split in two parts: a centralunit (gNB-CU), and one or more distributed units (gNB-DU). A gNB-CU maybe coupled to one or more gNB-DUs using an F1 interface. The gNB-CU maycomprise the RRC, the PDCP, and the SDAP. A gNB-DU may comprise the RLC,the MAC, and the PHY.

In NR, the physical signals and physical channels (discussed withrespect to FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B) may be mapped onto orthogonal frequencydivisional multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. OFDM is a multicarriercommunication scheme that transmits data over F orthogonal subcarriers(or tones). Before transmission, the data may be mapped to a series ofcomplex symbols (e.g., M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) orM-phase shift keying (M-PSK) symbols), referred to as source symbols,and divided into F parallel symbol streams. The F parallel symbolstreams may be treated as though they are in the frequency domain andused as inputs to an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) block thattransforms them into the time domain. The IFFT block may take in Fsource symbols at a time, one from each of the F parallel symbolstreams, and use each source symbol to modulate the amplitude and phaseof one of F sinusoidal basis functions that correspond to the Forthogonal subcarriers. The output of the IFFT block may be Ftime-domain samples that represent the summation of the F orthogonalsubcarriers. The F time-domain samples may form a single OFDM symbol.After some processing (e.g., addition of a cyclic prefix) andup-conversion, an OFDM symbol provided by the IFFT block may betransmitted over the air interface on a carrier frequency. The Fparallel symbol streams may be mixed using an FFT block before beingprocessed by the IFFT block. This operation produces Discrete FourierTransform (DFT)-precoded OFDM symbols and may be used by UEs in theuplink to reduce the peak to average power ratio (PAPR). Inverseprocessing may be performed on the OFDM symbol at a receiver using anFFT block to recover the data mapped to the source symbols.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example configuration of an NR frame into whichOFDM symbols are grouped. An NR frame may be identified by a systemframe number (SFN). The SFN may repeat with a period of 1024 frames. Asillustrated, one NR frame may be 10 milliseconds (ms) in duration andmay include 10 subframes that are 1 ms in duration. A subframe may bedivided into slots that include, for example, 14 OFDM symbols per slot.

The duration of a slot may depend on the numerology used for the OFDMsymbols of the slot. In NR, a flexible numerology is supported toaccommodate different cell deployments (e.g., cells with carrierfrequencies below 1 GHz up to cells with carrier frequencies in themm-wave range). A numerology may be defined in terms of subcarrierspacing and cyclic prefix duration. For a numerology in NR, subcarrierspacings may be scaled up by powers of two from a baseline subcarrierspacing of 15 kHz, and cyclic prefix durations may be scaled down bypowers of two from a baseline cyclic prefix duration of 4.7 μs. Forexample, NR defines numerologies with the following subcarrierspacing/cyclic prefix duration combinations: 15 kHz/4.7 μs; 30 kHz/2.3μs; 60 kHz/1.2 μs; 120 kHz/0.59 μs; and 240 kHz/0.29 μs.

A slot may have a fixed number of OFDM symbols (e.g., 14 OFDM symbols).A numerology with a higher subcarrier spacing has a shorter slotduration and, correspondingly, more slots per subframe. FIG. 7illustrates this numerology-dependent slot duration andslots-per-subframe transmission structure (the numerology with asubcarrier spacing of 240 kHz is not shown in FIG. 7 for ease ofillustration). A subframe in NR may be used as a numerology-independenttime reference, while a slot may be used as the unit upon which uplinkand downlink transmissions are scheduled. To support low latency,scheduling in NR may be decoupled from the slot duration and start atany OFDM symbol and last for as many symbols as needed for atransmission. These partial slot transmissions may be referred to asmini-slot or subslot transmissions.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example configuration of a slot in the time andfrequency domain for an NR carrier. The slot includes resource elements(REs) and resource blocks (RBs). An RE is the smallest physical resourcein NR. An RE spans one OFDM symbol in the time domain by one subcarrierin the frequency domain as shown in FIG. 8. An RB spans twelveconsecutive REs in the frequency domain as shown in FIG. 8. An NRcarrier may be limited to a width of 275 RBs or 275×12=3300 subcarriers.Such a limitation, if used, may limit the NR carrier to 50, 100, 200,and 400 MHz for subcarrier spacings of 15, 30, 60, and 120 kHz,respectively, where the 400 MHz bandwidth may be set based on a 400 MHzper carrier bandwidth limit.

FIG. 8 illustrates a single numerology being used across the entirebandwidth of the NR carrier. In other example configurations, multiplenumerologies may be supported on the same carrier.

NR may support wide carrier bandwidths (e.g., up to 400 MHz for asubcarrier spacing of 120 kHz). Not all UEs may be able to receive thefull carrier bandwidth (e.g., due to hardware limitations). Also,receiving the full carrier bandwidth may be prohibitive in terms of UEpower consumption. In an example, to reduce power consumption and/or forother purposes, a UE may adapt the size of the UE's receive bandwidthbased on the amount of traffic the UE is scheduled to receive. This isreferred to as bandwidth adaptation.

NR defines bandwidth parts (BWPs) to support UEs not capable ofreceiving the full carrier bandwidth and to support bandwidthadaptation. In an example, a BWP may be defined by a subset ofcontiguous RBs on a carrier. A UE may be configured (e.g., via RRClayer) with one or more downlink BWPs and one or more uplink BWPs perserving cell (e.g., up to four downlink BWPs and up to four uplink BWPsper serving cell). At a given time, one or more of the configured BWPsfor a serving cell may be active. These one or more BWPs may be referredto as active BWPs of the serving cell. When a serving cell is configuredwith a secondary uplink carrier, the serving cell may have one or morefirst active BWPs in the uplink carrier and one or more second activeBWPs in the secondary uplink carrier.

For unpaired spectra, a downlink BWP from a set of configured downlinkBWPs may be linked with an uplink BWP from a set of configured uplinkBWPs if a downlink BWP index of the downlink BWP and an uplink BWP indexof the uplink BWP are the same. For unpaired spectra, a UE may expectthat a center frequency for a downlink BWP is the same as a centerfrequency for an uplink BWP.

For a downlink BWP in a set of configured downlink BWPs on a primarycell (PCell), a base station may configure a UE with one or more controlresource sets (CORESETs) for at least one search space. A search spaceis a set of locations in the time and frequency domains where the UE mayfind control information. The search space may be a UE-specific searchspace or a common search space (potentially usable by a plurality ofUEs). For example, a base station may configure a UE with a commonsearch space, on a PCell or on a primary secondary cell (PSCell), in anactive downlink BWP.

For an uplink BWP in a set of configured uplink BWPs, a BS may configurea UE with one or more resource sets for one or more PUCCH transmissions.A UE may receive downlink receptions (e.g., PDCCH or PDSCH) in adownlink BWP according to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrierspacing and cyclic prefix duration) for the downlink BWP. The UE maytransmit uplink transmissions (e.g., PUCCH or PUSCH) in an uplink BWPaccording to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing andcyclic prefix length for the uplink BWP).

One or more BWP indicator fields may be provided in Downlink ControlInformation (DCI). A value of a BWP indicator field may indicate whichBWP in a set of configured BWPs is an active downlink BWP for one ormore downlink receptions. The value of the one or more BWP indicatorfields may indicate an active uplink BWP for one or more uplinktransmissions.

A base station may semi-statically configure a UE with a defaultdownlink BWP within a set of configured downlink BWPs associated with aPCell. If the base station does not provide the default downlink BWP tothe UE, the default downlink BWP may be an initial active downlink BWP.The UE may determine which BWP is the initial active downlink BWP basedon a CORESET configuration obtained using the PBCH.

A base station may configure a UE with a BWP inactivity timer value fora PCell. The UE may start or restart a BWP inactivity timer at anyappropriate time. For example, the UE may start or restart the BWPinactivity timer (a) when the UE detects a DCI indicating an activedownlink BWP other than a default downlink BWP for a paired spectraoperation; or (b) when a UE detects a DCI indicating an active downlinkBWP or active uplink BWP other than a default downlink BWP or uplink BWPfor an unpaired spectra operation. If the UE does not detect DCI duringan interval of time (e.g., 1 ms or 0.5 ms), the UE may run the BWPinactivity timer toward expiration (for example, increment from zero tothe BWP inactivity timer value, or decrement from the BWP inactivitytimer value to zero). When the BWP inactivity timer expires, the UE mayswitch from the active downlink BWP to the default downlink BWP.

In an example, a base station may semi-statically configure a UE withone or more BWPs. A UE may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to asecond BWP in response to receiving a DCI indicating the second BWP asan active BWP and/or in response to an expiry of the BWP inactivitytimer (e.g., if the second BWP is the default BWP).

Downlink and uplink BWP switching (where BWP switching refers toswitching from a currently active BWP to a not currently active BWP) maybe performed independently in paired spectra. In unpaired spectra,downlink and uplink BWP switching may be performed simultaneously.Switching between configured BWPs may occur based on RRC signaling, DCI,expiration of a BWP inactivity timer, and/or an initiation of randomaccess.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of bandwidth adaptation using threeconfigured BWPs for an NR carrier. A UE configured with the three BWPsmay switch from one BWP to another BWP at a switching point. In theexample illustrated in FIG. 9, the BWPs include: a BWP 902 with abandwidth of 40 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; a BWP 904 with abandwidth of 10 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; and a BWP 906with a bandwidth of 20 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 60 kHz. The BWP902 may be an initial active BWP, and the BWP 904 may be a default BWP.The UE may switch between BWPs at switching points. In the example ofFIG. 9, the UE may switch from the BWP 902 to the BWP 904 at a switchingpoint 908. The switching at the switching point 908 may occur for anysuitable reason, for example, in response to an expiry of a BWPinactivity timer (indicating switching to the default BWP) and/or inresponse to receiving a DCI indicating BWP 904 as the active BWP. The UEmay switch at a switching point 910 from active BWP 904 to BWP 906 inresponse receiving a DCI indicating BWP 906 as the active BWP. The UEmay switch at a switching point 912 from active BWP 906 to BWP 904 inresponse to an expiry of a BWP inactivity timer and/or in responsereceiving a DCI indicating BWP 904 as the active BWP. The UE may switchat a switching point 914 from active BWP 904 to BWP 902 in responsereceiving a DCI indicating BWP 902 as the active BWP.

If a UE is configured for a secondary cell with a default downlink BWPin a set of configured downlink BWPs and a timer value, UE proceduresfor switching BWPs on a secondary cell may be the same/similar as thoseon a primary cell. For example, the UE may use the timer value and thedefault downlink BWP for the secondary cell in the same/similar manneras the UE would use these values for a primary cell.

To provide for greater data rates, two or more carriers can beaggregated and simultaneously transmitted to/from the same UE usingcarrier aggregation (CA). The aggregated carriers in CA may be referredto as component carriers (CCs). When CA is used, there are a number ofserving cells for the UE, one for a CC. The CCs may have threeconfigurations in the frequency domain.

FIG. 10A illustrates the three CA configurations with two CCs. In theintraband, contiguous configuration 1002, the two CCs are aggregated inthe same frequency band (frequency band A) and are located directlyadjacent to each other within the frequency band. In the intraband,non-contiguous configuration 1004, the two CCs are aggregated in thesame frequency band (frequency band A) and are separated in thefrequency band by a gap. In the interband configuration 1006, the twoCCs are located in frequency bands (frequency band A and frequency bandB).

In an example, up to 32 CCs may be aggregated. The aggregated CCs mayhave the same or different bandwidths, subcarrier spacing, and/orduplexing schemes (TDD or FDD). A serving cell for a UE using CA mayhave a downlink CC. For FDD, one or more uplink CCs may be optionallyconfigured for a serving cell. The ability to aggregate more downlinkcarriers than uplink carriers may be useful, for example, when the UEhas more data traffic in the downlink than in the uplink.

When CA is used, one of the aggregated cells for a UE may be referred toas a primary cell (PCell). The PCell may be the serving cell that the UEinitially connects to at RRC connection establishment, reestablishment,and/or handover. The PCell may provide the UE with NAS mobilityinformation and the security input. UEs may have different PCells. Inthe downlink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell may be referred toas the downlink primary CC (DL PCC). In the uplink, the carriercorresponding to the PCell may be referred to as the uplink primary CC(UL PCC). The other aggregated cells for the UE may be referred to assecondary cells (SCells). In an example, the SCells may be configuredafter the PCell is configured for the UE. For example, an SCell may beconfigured through an RRC Connection Reconfiguration procedure. In thedownlink, the carrier corresponding to an SCell may be referred to as adownlink secondary CC (DL SCC). In the uplink, the carrier correspondingto the SCell may be referred to as the uplink secondary CC (UL SCC).

Configured SCells for a UE may be activated and deactivated based on,for example, traffic and channel conditions. Deactivation of an SCellmay mean that PDCCH and PDSCH reception on the SCell is stopped andPUSCH, SRS, and CQI transmissions on the SCell are stopped. ConfiguredSCells may be activated and deactivated using a MAC CE with respect toFIG. 4B. For example, a MAC CE may use a bitmap (e.g., one bit perSCell) to indicate which SCells (e.g., in a subset of configured SCells)for the UE are activated or deactivated. Configured SCells may bedeactivated in response to an expiration of an SCell deactivation timer(e.g., one SCell deactivation timer per SCell).

Downlink control information, such as scheduling assignments andscheduling grants, for a cell may be transmitted on the cellcorresponding to the assignments and grants, which is known asself-scheduling. The DCI for the cell may be transmitted on anothercell, which is known as cross-carrier scheduling. Uplink controlinformation (e.g., HARQ acknowledgments and channel state feedback, suchas CQI, PMI, and/or RI) for aggregated cells may be transmitted on thePUCCH of the PCell. For a larger number of aggregated downlink CCs, thePUCCH of the PCell may become overloaded. Cells may be divided intomultiple PUCCH groups.

FIG. 10B illustrates an example of how aggregated cells may beconfigured into one or more PUCCH groups. A PUCCH group 1010 and a PUCCHgroup 1050 may include one or more downlink CCs, respectively. In theexample of FIG. 10B, the PUCCH group 1010 includes three downlink CCs: aPCell 1011, an SCell 1012, and an SCell 1013. The PUCCH group 1050includes three downlink CCs in the present example: a PCell 1051, anSCell 1052, and an SCell 1053. One or more uplink CCs may be configuredas a PCell 1021, an SCell 1022, and an SCell 1023. One or more otheruplink CCs may be configured as a primary Scell (PSCell) 1061, an SCell1062, and an SCell 1063. Uplink control information (UCI) related to thedownlink CCs of the PUCCH group 1010, shown as UCI 1031, UCI 1032, andUCI 1033, may be transmitted in the uplink of the PCell 1021. Uplinkcontrol information (UCI) related to the downlink CCs of the PUCCH group1050, shown as UCI 1071, UCI 1072, and UCI 1073, may be transmitted inthe uplink of the PSCell 1061. In an example, if the aggregated cellsdepicted in FIG. 10B were not divided into the PUCCH group 1010 and thePUCCH group 1050, a single uplink PCell to transmit UCI relating to thedownlink CCs, and the PCell may become overloaded. By dividingtransmissions of UCI between the PCell 1021 and the PSCell 1061,overloading may be prevented.

A cell, comprising a downlink carrier and optionally an uplink carrier,may be assigned with a physical cell ID and a cell index. The physicalcell ID or the cell index may identify a downlink carrier and/or anuplink carrier of the cell, for example, depending on the context inwhich the physical cell ID is used. A physical cell ID may be determinedusing a synchronization signal transmitted on a downlink componentcarrier. A cell index may be determined using RRC messages. In thedisclosure, a physical cell ID may be referred to as a carrier ID, and acell index may be referred to as a carrier index. For example, when thedisclosure refers to a first physical cell ID for a first downlinkcarrier, the disclosure may mean the first physical cell ID is for acell comprising the first downlink carrier. The same/similar concept mayapply to, for example, a carrier activation. When the disclosureindicates that a first carrier is activated, the specification may meanthat a cell comprising the first carrier is activated.

In CA, a multi-carrier nature of a PHY may be exposed to a MAC. In anexample, a HARQ entity may operate on a serving cell. A transport blockmay be generated per assignment/grant per serving cell. A transportblock and potential HARQ retransmissions of the transport block may bemapped to a serving cell.

In the downlink, a base station may transmit (e.g., unicast, multicast,and/or broadcast) one or more Reference Signals (RSs) to a UE (e.g.,PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, DMRS, and/or PT-RS, as shown in FIG. 5A). In theuplink, the UE may transmit one or more RSs to the base station (e.g.,DMRS, PT-RS, and/or SRS, as shown in FIG. 5B). The PSS and the SSS maybe transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to synchronize theUE to the base station. The PSS and the SSS may be provided in asynchronization signal (SS)/physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block thatincludes the PSS, the SSS, and the PBCH. The base station mayperiodically transmit a burst of SS/PBCH blocks.

FIG. 11A illustrates an example of an SS/PBCH block's structure andlocation. A burst of SS/PBCH blocks may include one or more SS/PBCHblocks (e.g., 4 SS/PBCH blocks, as shown in FIG. 11A). Bursts may betransmitted periodically (e.g., every 2 frames or 20 ms). A burst may berestricted to a half-frame (e.g., a first half-frame having a durationof 5 ms). It will be understood that FIG. 11A is an example, and thatthese parameters (number of SS/PBCH blocks per burst, periodicity ofbursts, position of burst within the frame) may be configured based on,for example: a carrier frequency of a cell in which the SS/PBCH block istransmitted; a numerology or subcarrier spacing of the cell; aconfiguration by the network (e.g., using RRC signaling); or any othersuitable factor. In an example, the UE may assume a subcarrier spacingfor the SS/PBCH block based on the carrier frequency being monitored,unless the radio network configured the UE to assume a differentsubcarrier spacing.

The SS/PBCH block may span one or more OFDM symbols in the time domain(e.g., 4 OFDM symbols, as shown in the example of FIG. 11A) and may spanone or more subcarriers in the frequency domain (e.g., 240 contiguoussubcarriers). The PSS, the SSS, and the PBCH may have a common centerfrequency. The PSS may be transmitted first and may span, for example, 1OFDM symbol and 127 subcarriers. The SSS may be transmitted after thePSS (e.g., two symbols later) and may span 1 OFDM symbol and 127subcarriers. The PBCH may be transmitted after the PSS (e.g., across thenext 3 OFDM symbols) and may span 240 subcarriers.

The location of the SS/PBCH block in the time and frequency domains maynot be known to the UE (e.g., if the UE is searching for the cell). Tofind and select the cell, the UE may monitor a carrier for the PSS. Forexample, the UE may monitor a frequency location within the carrier. Ifthe PSS is not found after a certain duration (e.g., 20 ms), the UE maysearch for the PSS at a different frequency location within the carrier,as indicated by a synchronization raster. If the PSS is found at alocation in the time and frequency domains, the UE may determine, basedon a known structure of the SS/PBCH block, the locations of the SSS andthe PBCH, respectively. The SS/PBCH block may be a cell-defining SSblock (CD-SSB). In an example, a primary cell may be associated with aCD-SSB. The CD-SSB may be located on a synchronization raster. In anexample, a cell selection/search and/or reselection may be based on theCD-SSB.

The SS/PBCH block may be used by the UE to determine one or moreparameters of the cell. For example, the UE may determine a physicalcell identifier (PCI) of the cell based on the sequences of the PSS andthe SSS, respectively. The UE may determine a location of a frameboundary of the cell based on the location of the SS/PBCH block. Forexample, the SS/PBCH block may indicate that it has been transmitted inaccordance with a transmission pattern, wherein a SS/PBCH block in thetransmission pattern is a known distance from the frame boundary.

The PBCH may use a QPSK modulation and may use forward error correction(FEC). The FEC may use polar coding. One or more symbols spanned by thePBCH may carry one or more DMRSs for demodulation of the PBCH. The PBCHmay include an indication of a current system frame number (SFN) of thecell and/or a SS/PBCH block timing index. These parameters mayfacilitate time synchronization of the UE to the base station. The PBCHmay include a master information block (MIB) used to provide the UE withone or more parameters. The MIB may be used by the UE to locateremaining minimum system information (RMSI) associated with the cell.The RMSI may include a System Information Block Type 1 (SIB1). The SIB1may contain information needed by the UE to access the cell. The UE mayuse one or more parameters of the MIB to monitor PDCCH, which may beused to schedule PDSCH. The PDSCH may include the SIB1. The SIB1 may bedecoded using parameters provided in the MIB. The PBCH may indicate anabsence of SIB1. Based on the PBCH indicating the absence of SIB1, theUE may be pointed to a frequency. The UE may search for an SS/PBCH blockat the frequency to which the UE is pointed.

The UE may assume that one or more SS/PBCH blocks transmitted with asame SS/PBCH block index are quasi co-located (QCLed) (e.g., having thesame/similar Doppler spread, Doppler shift, average gain, average delay,and/or spatial Rx parameters). The UE may not assume QCL for SS/PBCHblock transmissions having different SS/PBCH block indices.

SS/PBCH blocks (e.g., those within a half-frame) may be transmitted inspatial directions (e.g., using different beams that span a coveragearea of the cell). In an example, a first SS/PBCH block may betransmitted in a first spatial direction using a first beam, and asecond SS/PBCH block may be transmitted in a second spatial directionusing a second beam.

In an example, within a frequency span of a carrier, a base station maytransmit a plurality of SS/PBCH blocks. In an example, a first PCI of afirst SS/PBCH block of the plurality of SS/PBCH blocks may be differentfrom a second PCI of a second SS/PBCH block of the plurality of SS/PBCHblocks. The PCIs of SS/PBCH blocks transmitted in different frequencylocations may be different or the same.

The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE toacquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configurethe UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any othersuitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or moreof the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs.The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSIreport based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. TheUE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station mayuse feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channelstate) to perform link adaptation.

The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or moreCSI-RS resource sets. A CSI-RS resource may be associated with alocation in the time and frequency domains and a periodicity. The basestation may selectively activate and/or deactivate a CSI-RS resource.The base station may indicate to the UE that a CSI-RS resource in theCSI-RS resource set is activated and/or deactivated.

The base station may configure the UE to report CSI measurements. Thebase station may configure the UE to provide CSI reports periodically,aperiodically, or semi-persistently. For periodic CSI reporting, the UEmay be configured with a timing and/or periodicity of a plurality of CSIreports. For aperiodic CSI reporting, the base station may request a CSIreport. For example, the base station may command the UE to measure aconfigured CSI-RS resource and provide a CSI report relating to themeasurements. For semi-persistent CSI reporting, the base station mayconfigure the UE to transmit periodically, and selectively activate ordeactivate the periodic reporting. The base station may configure the UEwith a CSI-RS resource set and CSI reports using RRC signaling.

The CSI-RS configuration may comprise one or more parameters indicating,for example, up to 32 antenna ports. The UE may be configured to employthe same OFDM symbols for a downlink CSI-RS and a control resource set(CORESET) when the downlink CSI-RS and CORESET are spatially QCLed andresource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of thephysical resource blocks (PRBs) configured for the CORESET. The UE maybe configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for downlink CSI-RS andSS/PBCH blocks when the downlink CSI-RS and SS/PBCH blocks are spatiallyQCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS areoutside of PRBs configured for the SS/PBCH blocks.

Downlink DMRSs may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE forchannel estimation. For example, the downlink DMRS may be used forcoherent demodulation of one or more downlink physical channels (e.g.,PDSCH). An NR network may support one or more variable and/orconfigurable DMRS patterns for data demodulation. At least one downlinkDMRS configuration may support a front-loaded DMRS pattern. Afront-loaded DMRS may be mapped over one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., oneor two adjacent OFDM symbols). A base station may semi-staticallyconfigure the UE with a number (e.g. a maximum number) of front-loadedDMRS symbols for PDSCH. A DMRS configuration may support one or moreDMRS ports. For example, for single user-MIMO, a DMRS configuration maysupport up to eight orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. Formultiuser-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to 4 orthogonaldownlink DMRS ports per UE. A radio network may support (e.g., at leastfor CP-OFDM) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, wherein aDMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and/or a scrambling sequence may be thesame or different. The base station may transmit a downlink DMRS and acorresponding PDSCH using the same precoding matrix. The UE may use theone or more downlink DMRSs for coherent demodulation/channel estimationof the PDSCH.

In an example, a transmitter (e.g., a base station) may use a precodermatrices for a part of a transmission bandwidth. For example, thetransmitter may use a first precoder matrix for a first bandwidth and asecond precoder matrix for a second bandwidth. The first precoder matrixand the second precoder matrix may be different based on the firstbandwidth being different from the second bandwidth. The UE may assumethat a same precoding matrix is used across a set of PRBs. The set ofPRBs may be denoted as a precoding resource block group (PRG).

A PDSCH may comprise one or more layers. The UE may assume that at leastone symbol with DMRS is present on a layer of the one or more layers ofthe PDSCH. A higher layer may configure up to 3 DMRSs for the PDSCH.

Downlink PT-RS may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE forphase-noise compensation. Whether a downlink PT-RS is present or not maydepend on an RRC configuration. The presence and/or pattern of thedownlink PT-RS may be configured on a UE-specific basis using acombination of RRC signaling and/or an association with one or moreparameters employed for other purposes (e.g., modulation and codingscheme (MCS)), which may be indicated by DCI. When configured, a dynamicpresence of a downlink PT-RS may be associated with one or more DCIparameters comprising at least MCS. An NR network may support aplurality of PT-RS densities defined in the time and/or frequencydomains. When present, a frequency domain density may be associated withat least one configuration of a scheduled bandwidth. The UE may assume asame precoding for a DMRS port and a PT-RS port. A number of PT-RS portsmay be fewer than a number of DMRS ports in a scheduled resource.Downlink PT-RS may be confined in the scheduled time/frequency durationfor the UE. Downlink PT-RS may be transmitted on symbols to facilitatephase tracking at the receiver.

The UE may transmit an uplink DMRS to a base station for channelestimation. For example, the base station may use the uplink DMRS forcoherent demodulation of one or more uplink physical channels. Forexample, the UE may transmit an uplink DMRS with a PUSCH and/or a PUCCH.The uplink DM-RS may span a range of frequencies that is similar to arange of frequencies associated with the corresponding physical channel.The base station may configure the UE with one or more uplink DMRSconfigurations. At least one DMRS configuration may support afront-loaded DMRS pattern. The front-loaded DMRS may be mapped over oneor more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). One ormore uplink DMRSs may be configured to transmit at one or more symbolsof a PUSCH and/or a PUCCH. The base station may semi-staticallyconfigure the UE with a number (e.g. maximum number) of front-loadedDMRS symbols for the PUSCH and/or the PUCCH, which the UE may use toschedule a single-symbol DMRS and/or a double-symbol DMRS. An NR networkmay support (e.g., for cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (CP-OFDM)) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink,wherein a DMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and/or a scrambling sequencefor the DMRS may be the same or different.

A PUSCH may comprise one or more layers, and the UE may transmit atleast one symbol with DMRS present on a layer of the one or more layersof the PUSCH. In an example, a higher layer may configure up to threeDMRSs for the PUSCH.

Uplink PT-RS (which may be used by a base station for phase trackingand/or phase-noise compensation) may or may not be present depending onan RRC configuration of the UE. The presence and/or pattern of uplinkPT-RS may be configured on a UE-specific basis by a combination of RRCsignaling and/or one or more parameters employed for other purposes(e.g., Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS)), which may be indicated byDCI. When configured, a dynamic presence of uplink PT-RS may beassociated with one or more DCI parameters comprising at least MCS. Aradio network may support a plurality of uplink PT-RS densities definedin time/frequency domain. When present, a frequency domain density maybe associated with at least one configuration of a scheduled bandwidth.The UE may assume a same precoding for a DMRS port and a PT-RS port. Anumber of PT-RS ports may be fewer than a number of DMRS ports in ascheduled resource. For example, uplink PT-RS may be confined in thescheduled time/frequency duration for the UE.

SRS may be transmitted by a UE to a base station for channel stateestimation to support uplink channel dependent scheduling and/or linkadaptation. SRS transmitted by the UE may allow a base station toestimate an uplink channel state at one or more frequencies. A schedulerat the base station may employ the estimated uplink channel state toassign one or more resource blocks for an uplink PUSCH transmission fromthe UE. The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with oneor more SRS resource sets. For an SRS resource set, the base station mayconfigure the UE with one or more SRS resources. An SRS resource setapplicability may be configured by a higher layer (e.g., RRC) parameter.For example, when a higher layer parameter indicates beam management, anSRS resource in a SRS resource set of the one or more SRS resource sets(e.g., with the same/similar time domain behavior, periodic, aperiodic,and/or the like) may be transmitted at a time instant (e.g.,simultaneously). The UE may transmit one or more SRS resources in SRSresource sets. An NR network may support aperiodic, periodic and/orsemi-persistent SRS transmissions. The UE may transmit SRS resourcesbased on one or more trigger types, wherein the one or more triggertypes may comprise higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC) and/or one or moreDCI formats. In an example, at least one DCI format may be employed forthe UE to select at least one of one or more configured SRS resourcesets. An SRS trigger type 0 may refer to an SRS triggered based on ahigher layer signaling. An SRS trigger type 1 may refer to an SRStriggered based on one or more DCI formats. In an example, when PUSCHand SRS are transmitted in a same slot, the UE may be configured totransmit SRS after a transmission of a PUSCH and a corresponding uplinkDMRS.

The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or moreSRS configuration parameters indicating at least one of following: a SRSresource configuration identifier; a number of SRS ports; time domainbehavior of an SRS resource configuration (e.g., an indication ofperiodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic SRS); slot, mini-slot, and/orsubframe level periodicity; offset for a periodic and/or an aperiodicSRS resource; a number of OFDM symbols in an SRS resource; a startingOFDM symbol of an SRS resource; an SRS bandwidth; a frequency hoppingbandwidth; a cyclic shift; and/or an SRS sequence ID.

An antenna port is defined such that the channel over which a symbol onthe antenna port is conveyed can be inferred from the channel over whichanother symbol on the same antenna port is conveyed. If a first symboland a second symbol are transmitted on the same antenna port, thereceiver may infer the channel (e.g., fading gain, multipath delay,and/or the like) for conveying the second symbol on the antenna port,from the channel for conveying the first symbol on the antenna port. Afirst antenna port and a second antenna port may be referred to as quasico-located (QCLed) if one or more large-scale properties of the channelover which a first symbol on the first antenna port is conveyed may beinferred from the channel over which a second symbol on a second antennaport is conveyed. The one or more large-scale properties may comprise atleast one of: a delay spread; a Doppler spread; a Doppler shift; anaverage gain; an average delay; and/or spatial Receiving (Rx)parameters.

Channels that use beamforming require beam management. Beam managementmay comprise beam measurement, beam selection, and beam indication. Abeam may be associated with one or more reference signals. For example,a beam may be identified by one or more beamformed reference signals.The UE may perform downlink beam measurement based on downlink referencesignals (e.g., a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS))and generate a beam measurement report. The UE may perform the downlinkbeam measurement procedure after an RRC connection is set up with a basestation.

FIG. 11B illustrates an example of channel state information referencesignals (CSI-RSs) that are mapped in the time and frequency domains. Asquare shown in FIG. 11B may span a resource block (RB) within abandwidth of a cell. A base station may transmit one or more RRCmessages comprising CSI-RS resource configuration parameters indicatingone or more CSI-RSs. One or more of the following parameters may beconfigured by higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC and/or MAC signaling)for a CSI-RS resource configuration: a CSI-RS resource configurationidentity, a number of CSI-RS ports, a CSI-RS configuration (e.g., symboland resource element (RE) locations in a subframe), a CSI-RS subframeconfiguration (e.g., subframe location, offset, and periodicity in aradio frame), a CSI-RS power parameter, a CSI-RS sequence parameter, acode division multiplexing (CDM) type parameter, a frequency density, atransmission comb, quasi co-location (QCL) parameters (e.g.,QCL-scramblingidentity, crs-portscount, mbsfn-subframeconfiglist,csi-rs-configZPid, qcl-csi-rs-configNZPid), and/or other radio resourceparameters.

The three beams illustrated in FIG. 11B may be configured for a UE in aUE-specific configuration. Three beams are illustrated in FIG. 11B (beam#1, beam #2, and beam #3), more or fewer beams may be configured. Beam#1 may be allocated with CSI-RS 1101 that may be transmitted in one ormore subcarriers in an RB of a first symbol. Beam #2 may be allocatedwith CSI-RS 1102 that may be transmitted in one or more subcarriers inan RB of a second symbol. Beam #3 may be allocated with CSI-RS 1103 thatmay be transmitted in one or more subcarriers in an RB of a thirdsymbol. By using frequency division multiplexing (FDM), a base stationmay use other subcarriers in a same RB (for example, those that are notused to transmit CSI-RS 1101) to transmit another CSI-RS associated witha beam for another UE. By using time domain multiplexing (TDM), beamsused for the UE may be configured such that beams for the UE use symbolsfrom beams of other UEs.

CSI-RSs such as those illustrated in FIG. 11B (e.g., CSI-RS 1101, 1102,1103) may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE for oneor more measurements. For example, the UE may measure a reference signalreceived power (RSRP) of configured CSI-RS resources. The base stationmay configure the UE with a reporting configuration and the UE mayreport the RSRP measurements to a network (for example, via one or morebase stations) based on the reporting configuration. In an example, thebase station may determine, based on the reported measurement results,one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) statescomprising a number of reference signals. In an example, the basestation may indicate one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., via RRCsignaling, a MAC CE, and/or a DCI). The UE may receive a downlinktransmission with a receive (Rx) beam determined based on the one ormore TCI states. In an example, the UE may or may not have a capabilityof beam correspondence. If the UE has the capability of beamcorrespondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of atransmit (Tx) beam based on a spatial domain filter of the correspondingRx beam. If the UE does not have the capability of beam correspondence,the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine thespatial domain filter of the Tx beam. The UE may perform the uplink beamselection procedure based on one or more sounding reference signal (SRS)resources configured to the UE by the base station. The base station mayselect and indicate uplink beams for the UE based on measurements of theone or more SRS resources transmitted by the UE.

In a beam management procedure, a UE may assess (e.g., measure) achannel quality of one or more beam pair links, a beam pair linkcomprising a transmitting beam transmitted by a base station and areceiving beam received by the UE. Based on the assessment, the UE maytransmit a beam measurement report indicating one or more beam pairquality parameters comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications(e.g., a beam index, a reference signal index, or the like), RSRP, aprecoding matrix indicator (PMI), a channel quality indicator (CQI),and/or a rank indicator (RI).

FIG. 12A illustrates examples of three downlink beam managementprocedures: P1, P2, and P3. Procedure P1 may enable a UE measurement ontransmit (Tx) beams of a transmission reception point (TRP) (or multipleTRPs), e.g., to support a selection of one or more base station Tx beamsand/or UE Rx beams (shown as ovals in the top row and bottom row,respectively, of P1). Beamforming at a TRP may comprise a Tx beam sweepfor a set of beams (shown, in the top rows of P1 and P2, as ovalsrotated in a counter-clockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow).Beamforming at a UE may comprise an Rx beam sweep for a set of beams(shown, in the bottom rows of P1 and P3, as ovals rotated in a clockwisedirection indicated by the dashed arrow). Procedure P2 may be used toenable a UE measurement on Tx beams of a TRP (shown, in the top row ofP2, as ovals rotated in a counter-clockwise direction indicated by thedashed arrow). The UE and/or the base station may perform procedure P2using a smaller set of beams than is used in procedure P1, or usingnarrower beams than the beams used in procedure P1. This may be referredto as beam refinement. The UE may perform procedure P3 for Rx beamdetermination by using the same Tx beam at the base station and sweepingan Rx beam at the UE.

FIG. 12B illustrates examples of three uplink beam managementprocedures: U1, U2, and U3. Procedure U1 may be used to enable a basestation to perform a measurement on Tx beams of a UE, e.g., to support aselection of one or more UE Tx beams and/or base station Rx beams (shownas ovals in the top row and bottom row, respectively, of U1).Beamforming at the UE may include, e.g., a Tx beam sweep from a set ofbeams (shown in the bottom rows of U1 and U3 as ovals rotated in aclockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). Beamforming at thebase station may include, e.g., an Rx beam sweep from a set of beams(shown, in the top rows of U1 and U2, as ovals rotated in acounter-clockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). Procedure U2may be used to enable the base station to adjust its Rx beam when the UEuses a fixed Tx beam. The UE and/or the base station may performprocedure U2 using a smaller set of beams than is used in procedure P1,or using narrower beams than the beams used in procedure P1. This may bereferred to as beam refinement The UE may perform procedure U3 to adjustits Tx beam when the base station uses a fixed Rx beam.

A UE may initiate a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure based ondetecting a beam failure. The UE may transmit a BFR request (e.g., apreamble, a UCI, an SR, a MAC CE, and/or the like) based on theinitiating of the BFR procedure. The UE may detect the beam failurebased on a determination that a quality of beam pair link(s) of anassociated control channel is unsatisfactory (e.g., having an error ratehigher than an error rate threshold, a received signal power lower thana received signal power threshold, an expiration of a timer, and/or thelike).

The UE may measure a quality of a beam pair link using one or morereference signals (RSs) comprising one or more SS/PBCH blocks, one ormore CSI-RS resources, and/or one or more demodulation reference signals(DMRSs). A quality of the beam pair link may be based on one or more ofa block error rate (BLER), an RSRP value, a signal to interference plusnoise ratio (SINR) value, a reference signal received quality (RSRQ)value, and/or a CSI value measured on RS resources. The base station mayindicate that an RS resource is quasi co-located (QCLed) with one ormore DM-RSs of a channel (e.g., a control channel, a shared datachannel, and/or the like). The RS resource and the one or more DMRSs ofthe channel may be QCLed when the channel characteristics (e.g., Dopplershift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread, spatial Rxparameter, fading, and/or the like) from a transmission via the RSresource to the UE are similar or the same as the channelcharacteristics from a transmission via the channel to the UE.

A network (e.g., a gNB and/or an ng-eNB of a network) and/or the UE mayinitiate a random access procedure. A UE in an RRC_IDLE state and/or anRRC_INACTIVE state may initiate the random access procedure to request aconnection setup to a network. The UE may initiate the random accessprocedure from an RRC_CONNECTED state. The UE may initiate the randomaccess procedure to request uplink resources (e.g., for uplinktransmission of an SR when there is no PUCCH resource available) and/oracquire uplink timing (e.g., when uplink synchronization status isnon-synchronized). The UE may initiate the random access procedure torequest one or more system information blocks (SIBs) (e.g., other systeminformation such as SIB2, SIB3, and/or the like). The UE may initiatethe random access procedure for a beam failure recovery request. Anetwork may initiate a random access procedure for a handover and/or forestablishing time alignment for an SCell addition.

FIG. 13A illustrates a four-step contention-based random accessprocedure. Prior to initiation of the procedure, a base station maytransmit a configuration message 1310 to the UE. The procedureillustrated in FIG. 13A comprises transmission of four messages: a Msg 11311, a Msg 2 1312, a Msg 3 1313, and a Msg 4 1314. The Msg 1 1311 mayinclude and/or be referred to as a preamble (or a random accesspreamble). The Msg 2 1312 may include and/or be referred to as a randomaccess response (RAR).

The configuration message 1310 may be transmitted, for example, usingone or more RRC messages. The one or more RRC messages may indicate oneor more random access channel (RACH) parameters to the UE. The one ormore RACH parameters may comprise at least one of following: generalparameters for one or more random access procedures (e.g.,RACH-configGeneral); cell-specific parameters (e.g., RACH-ConfigCommon);and/or dedicated parameters (e.g., RACH-configDedicated). The basestation may broadcast or multicast the one or more RRC messages to oneor more UEs. The one or more RRC messages may be UE-specific (e.g.,dedicated RRC messages transmitted to a UE in an RRC_CONNECTED stateand/or in an RRC_INACTIVE state). The UE may determine, based on the oneor more RACH parameters, a time-frequency resource and/or an uplinktransmit power for transmission of the Msg 1 1311 and/or the Msg 3 1313.Based on the one or more RACH parameters, the UE may determine areception timing and a downlink channel for receiving the Msg 2 1312 andthe Msg 4 1314.

The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message1310 may indicate one or more Physical RACH (PRACH) occasions availablefor transmission of the Msg 1 1311. The one or more PRACH occasions maybe predefined. The one or more RACH parameters may indicate one or moreavailable sets of one or more PRACH occasions (e.g., prach-Configlndex).The one or more RACH parameters may indicate an association between (a)one or more PRACH occasions and (b) one or more reference signals. Theone or more RACH parameters may indicate an association between (a) oneor more preambles and (b) one or more reference signals. The one or morereference signals may be SS/PBCH blocks and/or CSI-RSs. For example, theone or more RACH parameters may indicate a number of SS/PBCH blocksmapped to a PRACH occasion and/or a number of preambles mapped to aSS/PBCH blocks.

The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message1310 may be used to determine an uplink transmit power of Msg 1 1311and/or Msg 3 1313. For example, the one or more RACH parameters mayindicate a reference power for a preamble transmission (e.g., a receivedtarget power and/or an initial power of the preamble transmission).There may be one or more power offsets indicated by the one or more RACHparameters. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate: apower ramping step; a power offset between SSB and CSI-RS; a poweroffset between transmissions of the Msg 1 1311 and the Msg 3 1313;and/or a power offset value between preamble groups. The one or moreRACH parameters may indicate one or more thresholds based on which theUE may determine at least one reference signal (e.g., an SSB and/orCSI-RS) and/or an uplink carrier (e.g., a normal uplink (NUL) carrierand/or a supplemental uplink (SUL) carrier).

The Msg 1 1311 may include one or more preamble transmissions (e.g., apreamble transmission and one or more preamble retransmissions). An RRCmessage may be used to configure one or more preamble groups (e.g.,group A and/or group B). A preamble group may comprise one or morepreambles. The UE may determine the preamble group based on a pathlossmeasurement and/or a size of the Msg 3 1313. The UE may measure an RSRPof one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) anddetermine at least one reference signal having an RSRP above an RSRPthreshold (e.g., rsrp-ThresholdSSB and/or rsrp-ThresholdCSl-RS). The UEmay select at least one preamble associated with the one or morereference signals and/or a selected preamble group, for example, if theassociation between the one or more preambles and the at least onereference signal is configured by an RRC message.

The UE may determine the preamble based on the one or more RACHparameters provided in the configuration message 1310. For example, theUE may determine the preamble based on a pathloss measurement, an RSRPmeasurement, and/or a size of the Msg 3 1313. As another example, theone or more RACH parameters may indicate: a preamble format; a maximumnumber of preamble transmissions; and/or one or more thresholds fordetermining one or more preamble groups (e.g., group A and group B). Abase station may use the one or more RACH parameters to configure the UEwith an association between one or more preambles and one or morereference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs). If the association isconfigured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the basestation via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or morereference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) for selection of thepreamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion. One or more RACHparameters (e.g., ra-ssb-OccasionMsklndex and/or ra-OccasionList) mayindicate an association between the PRACH occasions and the one or morereference signals.

The UE may perform a preamble retransmission if no response is receivedfollowing a preamble transmission. The UE may increase an uplinktransmit power for the preamble retransmission. The UE may select aninitial preamble transmit power based on a pathloss measurement and/or atarget received preamble power configured by the network. The UE maydetermine to retransmit a preamble and may ramp up the uplink transmitpower. The UE may receive one or more RACH parameters (e.g.,PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_STEP) indicating a ramping step for the preambleretransmission. The ramping step may be an amount of incrementalincrease in uplink transmit power for a retransmission. The UE may rampup the uplink transmit power if the UE determines a reference signal(e.g., SSB and/or CSI-RS) that is the same as a previous preambletransmission. The UE may count a number of preamble transmissions and/orretransmissions (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER). The UE maydetermine that a random access procedure completed unsuccessfully, forexample, if the number of preamble transmissions exceeds a thresholdconfigured by the one or more RACH parameters (e.g., preambleTransMax).

The Msg 2 1312 received by the UE may include an RAR. In some scenarios,the Msg 2 1312 may include multiple RARs corresponding to multiple UEs.The Msg 2 1312 may be received after or in response to the transmittingof the Msg 1 1311. The Msg 2 1312 may be scheduled on the DL-SCH andindicated on a PDCCH using a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI). The Msg 21312 may indicate that the Msg 1 1311 was received by the base station.The Msg 2 1312 may include a time-alignment command that may be used bythe UE to adjust the UE's transmission timing, a scheduling grant fortransmission of the Msg 3 1313, and/or a Temporary Cell RNTI (TC-RNTI).After transmitting a preamble, the UE may start a time window (e.g.,ra-ResponseWindow) to monitor a PDCCH for the Msg 2 1312. The UE maydetermine when to start the time window based on a PRACH occasion thatthe UE uses to transmit the preamble. For example, the UE may start thetime window one or more symbols after a last symbol of the preamble(e.g., at a first PDCCH occasion from an end of a preambletransmission). The one or more symbols may be determined based on anumerology. The PDCCH may be in a common search space (e.g., aType1-PDCCH common search space) configured by an RRC message. The UEmay identify the RAR based on a Radio Network Temporary Identifier(RNTI). RNTIs may be used depending on one or more events initiating therandom access procedure. The UE may use random access RNTI (RA-RNTI).The RA-RNTI may be associated with PRACH occasions in which the UEtransmits a preamble. For example, the UE may determine the RA-RNTIbased on: an OFDM symbol index; a slot index; a frequency domain index;and/or a UL carrier indicator of the PRACH occasions. An example ofRA-RNTI may be as follows:

RA-RNTI=1+s_id+14×t_id+14×80×f_id+14×80×8×ul_carrier_id

where s_id may be an index of a first OFDM symbol of the PRACH occasion(e.g., 0<s_id<14), t_id may be an index of a first slot of the PRACHoccasion in a system frame (e.g., 0<t_id<80), f_id may be an index ofthe PRACH occasion in the frequency domain (e.g., 0<f_id<8), andul_carrier_id may be a UL carrier used for a preamble transmission(e.g., 0 for an NUL carrier, and 1 for an SUL carrier). The UE maytransmit the Msg 3 1313 in response to a successful reception of the Msg2 1312 (e.g., using resources identified in the Msg 2 1312). The Msg 31313 may be used for contention resolution in, for example, thecontention-based random access procedure illustrated in FIG. 13A. Insome scenarios, a plurality of UEs may transmit a same preamble to abase station and the base station may provide an RAR that corresponds toa UE. Collisions may occur if the plurality of UEs interpret the RAR ascorresponding to themselves. Contention resolution (e.g., using the Msg3 1313 and the Msg 4 1314) may be used to increase the likelihood thatthe UE does not incorrectly use an identity of another the UE. Toperform contention resolution, the UE may include a device identifier inthe Msg 3 1313 (e.g., a C-RNTI if assigned, a TC-RNTI included in theMsg 2 1312, and/or any other suitable identifier).

The Msg 4 1314 may be received after or in response to the transmittingof the Msg 3 1313. If a C-RNTI was included in the Msg 3 1313, the basestation will address the UE on the PDCCH using the C-RNTI. If the UE'sunique C-RNTI is detected on the PDCCH, the random access procedure isdetermined to be successfully completed. If a TC-RNTI is included in theMsg 3 1313 (e.g., if the UE is in an RRC_IDLE state or not otherwiseconnected to the base station), Msg 4 1314 will be received using aDL-SCH associated with the TC-RNTI. If a MAC PDU is successfully decodedand a MAC PDU comprises the UE contention resolution identity MAC CEthat matches or otherwise corresponds with the CCCH SDU sent (e.g.,transmitted) in Msg 3 1313, the UE may determine that the contentionresolution is successful and/or the UE may determine that the randomaccess procedure is successfully completed.

The UE may be configured with a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier and anormal uplink (NUL) carrier. An initial access (e.g., random accessprocedure) may be supported in an uplink carrier. For example, a basestation may configure the UE with two separate RACH configurations: onefor an SUL carrier and the other for an NUL carrier. For random accessin a cell configured with an SUL carrier, the network may indicate whichcarrier to use (NUL or SUL). The UE may determine the SUL carrier, forexample, if a measured quality of one or more reference signals is lowerthan a broadcast threshold. Uplink transmissions of the random accessprocedure (e.g., the Msg 1 1311 and/or the Msg 3 1313) may remain on theselected carrier. The UE may switch an uplink carrier during the randomaccess procedure (e.g., between the Msg 1 1311 and the Msg 3 1313) inone or more cases. For example, the UE may determine and/or switch anuplink carrier for the Msg 1 1311 and/or the Msg 3 1313 based on achannel clear assessment (e.g., a listen-before-talk).

FIG. 13B illustrates a two-step contention-free random access procedure.Similar to the four-step contention-based random access procedureillustrated in FIG. 13A, a base station may, prior to initiation of theprocedure, transmit a configuration message 1320 to the UE. Theconfiguration message 1320 may be analogous in some respects to theconfiguration message 1310. The procedure illustrated in FIG. 13Bcomprises transmission of two messages: a Msg 1 1321 and a Msg 2 1322.The Msg 1 1321 and the Msg 2 1322 may be analogous in some respects tothe Msg 1 1311 and a Msg 2 1312 illustrated in FIG. 13A, respectively.As will be understood from FIGS. 13A and 13B, the contention-free randomaccess procedure may not include messages analogous to the Msg 3 1313and/or the Msg 4 1314.

The contention-free random access procedure illustrated in FIG. 13B maybe initiated for a beam failure recovery, other SI request, SCelladdition, and/or handover. For example, a base station may indicate orassign to the UE the preamble to be used for the Msg 1 1321. The UE mayreceive, from the base station via PDCCH and/or RRC, an indication of apreamble (e.g., ra-PreambleIndex).

After transmitting a preamble, the UE may start a time window (e.g.,ra-ResponseWindow) to monitor a PDCCH for the RAR. In the event of abeam failure recovery request, the base station may configure the UEwith a separate time window and/or a separate PDCCH in a search spaceindicated by an RRC message (e.g., recoverySearchSpaceId). The UE maymonitor for a PDCCH transmission addressed to a Cell RNTI (C-RNTI) onthe search space. In the contention-free random access procedureillustrated in FIG. 13B, the UE may determine that a random accessprocedure successfully completes after or in response to transmission ofMsg 1 1321 and reception of a corresponding Msg 2 1322. The UE maydetermine that a random access procedure successfully completes, forexample, if a PDCCH transmission is addressed to a C-RNTI. The UE maydetermine that a random access procedure successfully completes, forexample, if the UE receives an RAR comprising a preamble identifiercorresponding to a preamble transmitted by the UE and/or the RARcomprises a MAC sub-PDU with the preamble identifier. The UE maydetermine the response as an indication of an acknowledgement for an SIrequest.

FIG. 13C illustrates another two-step random access procedure. Similarto the random access procedures illustrated in FIGS. 13A and 13B, a basestation may, prior to initiation of the procedure, transmit aconfiguration message 1330 to the UE. The configuration message 1330 maybe analogous in some respects to the configuration message 1310 and/orthe configuration message 1320. The procedure illustrated in FIG. 13Ccomprises transmission of two messages: a Msg A 1331 and a Msg B 1332.

Msg A 1331 may be transmitted in an uplink transmission by the UE. Msg A1331 may comprise one or more transmissions of a preamble 1341 and/orone or more transmissions of a transport block 1342. The transport block1342 may comprise contents that are similar and/or equivalent to thecontents of the Msg 3 1313 illustrated in FIG. 13A. The transport block1342 may comprise UCI (e.g., an SR, a HARQ ACK/NACK, and/or the like).The UE may receive the Msg B 1332 after or in response to transmittingthe Msg A 1331. The Msg B 1332 may comprise contents that are similarand/or equivalent to the contents of the Msg 2 1312 (e.g., an RAR)illustrated in FIGS. 13A and 13B and/or the Msg 4 1314 illustrated inFIG. 13A.

The UE may initiate the two-step random access procedure in FIG. 13C forlicensed spectrum and/or unlicensed spectrum. The UE may determine,based on one or more factors, whether to initiate the two-step randomaccess procedure. The one or more factors may be: a radio accesstechnology in use (e.g., LTE, NR, and/or the like); whether the UE hasvalid TA or not; a cell size; the UE's RRC state; a type of spectrum(e.g., licensed vs. unlicensed); and/or any other suitable factors.

The UE may determine, based on two-step RACH parameters included in theconfiguration message 1330, a radio resource and/or an uplink transmitpower for the preamble 1341 and/or the transport block 1342 included inthe Msg A 1331. The RACH parameters may indicate a modulation and codingschemes (MCS), a time-frequency resource, and/or a power control for thepreamble 1341 and/or the transport block 1342. A time-frequency resourcefor transmission of the preamble 1341 (e.g., a PRACH) and atime-frequency resource for transmission of the transport block 1342(e.g., a PUSCH) may be multiplexed using FDM, TDM, and/or CDM. The RACHparameters may enable the UE to determine a reception timing and adownlink channel for monitoring for and/or receiving Msg B 1332.

The transport block 1342 may comprise data (e.g., delay-sensitive data),an identifier of the UE, security information, and/or device information(e.g., an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)). The basestation may transmit the Msg B 1332 as a response to the Msg A 1331. TheMsg B 1332 may comprise at least one of following: a preambleidentifier; a timing advance command; a power control command; an uplinkgrant (e.g., a radio resource assignment and/or an MCS); a UE identifierfor contention resolution; and/or an RNTI (e.g., a C-RNTI or a TC-RNTI).The UE may determine that the two-step random access procedure issuccessfully completed if: a preamble identifier in the Msg B 1332 ismatched to a preamble transmitted by the UE; and/or the identifier ofthe UE in Msg B 1332 is matched to the identifier of the UE in the Msg A1331 (e.g., the transport block 1342).

A UE and a base station may exchange control signaling. The controlsignaling may be referred to as L1/L2 control signaling and mayoriginate from the PHY layer (e.g., layer 1) and/or the MAC layer (e.g.,layer 2). The control signaling may comprise downlink control signalingtransmitted from the base station to the UE and/or uplink controlsignaling transmitted from the UE to the base station.

The downlink control signaling may comprise: a downlink schedulingassignment; an uplink scheduling grant indicating uplink radio resourcesand/or a transport format; a slot format information; a preemptionindication; a power control command; and/or any other suitablesignaling. The UE may receive the downlink control signaling in apayload transmitted by the base station on a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH). The payload transmitted on the PDCCH may be referred toas downlink control information (DCI). In some scenarios, the PDCCH maybe a group common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) that is common to a group of UEs.

A base station may attach one or more cyclic redundancy check (CRC)parity bits to a DCI in order to facilitate detection of transmissionerrors. When the DCI is intended for a UE (or a group of the UEs), thebase station may scramble the CRC parity bits with an identifier of theUE (or an identifier of the group of the UEs). Scrambling the CRC paritybits with the identifier may comprise Modulo-2 addition (or an exclusiveOR operation) of the identifier value and the CRC parity bits. Theidentifier may comprise a 16-bit value of a radio network temporaryidentifier (RNTI).

DCIs may be used for different purposes. A purpose may be indicated bythe type of RNTI used to scramble the CRC parity bits. For example, aDCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a paging RNTI (P-RNTI) mayindicate paging information and/or a system information changenotification. The P-RNTI may be predefined as “FFFE” in hexadecimal. ADCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a system information RNTI(SI-RNTI) may indicate a broadcast transmission of the systeminformation. The SI-RNTI may be predefined as “FFFF” in hexadecimal. ADCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI)may indicate a random access response (RAR). A DCI having CRC paritybits scrambled with a cell RNTI (C-RNTI) may indicate a dynamicallyscheduled unicast transmission and/or a triggering of PDCCH-orderedrandom access. A DCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a temporarycell RNTI (TC-RNTI) may indicate a contention resolution (e.g., a Msg 3analogous to the Msg 3 1313 illustrated in FIG. 13A). Other RNTIsconfigured to the UE by a base station may comprise a ConfiguredScheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), a Transmit Power Control-PUCCH RNTI(TPC-PUCCH-RNTI), a Transmit Power Control-PUSCH RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI),a Transmit Power Control-SRS RNTI (TPC-SRS-RNTI), an Interruption RNTI(INT-RNTI), a Slot Format Indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), a Semi-PersistentCSI RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI), a Modulation and Coding Scheme Cell RNTI(MCS-C-RNTI), and/or the like.

Depending on the purpose and/or content of a DCI, the base station maytransmit the DCIs with one or more DCI formats. For example, DCI format0_0 may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in a cell. DCI format 0_0 may bea fallback DCI format (e.g., with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 0_1may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCIpayloads than DCI format 0_0). DCI format 1_0 may be used for schedulingof PDSCH in a cell. DCI format 1_0 may be a fallback DCI format (e.g.,with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 1_1 may be used for scheduling ofPDSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCI payloads than DCI format 1_0). DCIformat 2_0 may be used for providing a slot format indication to a groupof UEs. DCI format 2_1 may be used for notifying a group of UEs of aphysical resource block and/or OFDM symbol where the UE may assume notransmission is intended to the UE. DCI format 2_2 may be used fortransmission of a transmit power control (TPC) command for PUCCH orPUSCH. DCI format 2_3 may be used for transmission of a group of TPCcommands for SRS transmissions by one or more UEs. DCI format(s) for newfunctions may be defined in future releases. DCI formats may havedifferent DCI sizes, or may share the same DCI size.

After scrambling a DCI with a RNTI, the base station may process the DCIwith channel coding (e.g., polar coding), rate matching, scramblingand/or QPSK modulation. A base station may map the coded and modulatedDCI on resource elements used and/or configured for a PDCCH. Based on apayload size of the DCI and/or a coverage of the base station, the basestation may transmit the DCI via a PDCCH occupying a number ofcontiguous control channel elements (CCEs). The number of the contiguousCCEs (referred to as aggregation level) may be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and/orany other suitable number. A CCE may comprise a number (e.g., 6) ofresource-element groups (REGs). A REG may comprise a resource block inan OFDM symbol. The mapping of the coded and modulated DCI on theresource elements may be based on mapping of CCEs and REGs (e.g.,CCE-to-REG mapping).

FIG. 14A illustrates an example of CORESET configurations for abandwidth part. The base station may transmit a DCI via a PDCCH on oneor more control resource sets (CORESETs). A CORESET may comprise atime-frequency resource in which the UE tries to decode a DCI using oneor more search spaces. The base station may configure a CORESET in thetime-frequency domain. In the example of FIG. 14A, a first CORESET 1401and a second CORESET 1402 occur at the first symbol in a slot. The firstCORESET 1401 overlaps with the second CORESET 1402 in the frequencydomain. A third CORESET 1403 occurs at a third symbol in the slot. Afourth CORESET 1404 occurs at the seventh symbol in the slot. CORESETsmay have a different number of resource blocks in frequency domain.

FIG. 14B illustrates an example of a CCE-to-REG mapping for DCItransmission on a CORESET and PDCCH processing. The CCE-to-REG mappingmay be an interleaved mapping (e.g., for the purpose of providingfrequency diversity) or a non-interleaved mapping (e.g., for thepurposes of facilitating interference coordination and/orfrequency-selective transmission of control channels). The base stationmay perform different or same CCE-to-REG mapping on different CORESETs.A CORESET may be associated with a CCE-to-REG mapping by RRCconfiguration. A CORESET may be configured with an antenna port quasico-location (QCL) parameter. The antenna port QCL parameter may indicateQCL information of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for PDCCHreception in the CORESET.

The base station may transmit, to the UE, RRC messages comprisingconfiguration parameters of one or more CORESETs and one or more searchspace sets. The configuration parameters may indicate an associationbetween a search space set and a CORESET. A search space set maycomprise a set of PDCCH candidates formed by CCEs at a given aggregationlevel. The configuration parameters may indicate: a number of PDCCHcandidates to be monitored per aggregation level; a PDCCH monitoringperiodicity and a PDCCH monitoring pattern; one or more DCI formats tobe monitored by the UE; and/or whether a search space set is a commonsearch space set or a UE-specific search space set. A set of CCEs in thecommon search space set may be predefined and known to the UE. A set ofCCEs in the UE-specific search space set may be configured based on theUE's identity (e.g., C-RNTI).

As shown in FIG. 14B, the UE may determine a time-frequency resource fora CORESET based on RRC messages. The UE may determine a CCE-to-REGmapping (e.g., interleaved or non-interleaved, and/or mappingparameters) for the CORESET based on configuration parameters of theCORESET. The UE may determine a number (e.g., at most 10) of searchspace sets configured on the CORESET based on the RRC messages. The UEmay monitor a set of PDCCH candidates according to configurationparameters of a search space set. The UE may monitor a set of PDCCHcandidates in one or more CORESETs for detecting one or more DCIs.Monitoring may comprise decoding one or more PDCCH candidates of the setof the PDCCH candidates according to the monitored DCI formats.Monitoring may comprise decoding a DCI content of one or more PDCCHcandidates with possible (or configured) PDCCH locations, possible (orconfigured) PDCCH formats (e.g., number of CCEs, number of PDCCHcandidates in common search spaces, and/or number of PDCCH candidates inthe UE-specific search spaces) and possible (or configured) DCI formats.The decoding may be referred to as blind decoding. The UE may determinea DCI as valid for the UE, in response to CRC checking (e.g., scrambledbits for CRC parity bits of the DCI matching a RNTI value). The UE mayprocess information contained in the DCI (e.g., a scheduling assignment,an uplink grant, power control, a slot format indication, a downlinkpreemption, and/or the like).

The UE may transmit uplink control signaling (e.g., uplink controlinformation (UCI)) to a base station. The uplink control signaling maycomprise hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgements forreceived DL-SCH transport blocks. The UE may transmit the HARQacknowledgements after receiving a DL-SCH transport block. Uplinkcontrol signaling may comprise channel state information (CSI)indicating channel quality of a physical downlink channel. The UE maytransmit the CSI to the base station. The base station, based on thereceived CSI, may determine transmission format parameters (e.g.,comprising multi-antenna and beamforming schemes) for a downlinktransmission. Uplink control signaling may comprise scheduling requests(SR). The UE may transmit an SR indicating that uplink data is availablefor transmission to the base station. The UE may transmit a UCI (e.g.,HARQ acknowledgements (HARQ-ACK), CSI report, SR, and the like) via aphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink sharedchannel (PUSCH). The UE may transmit the uplink control signaling via aPUCCH using one of several PUCCH formats.

There may be five PUCCH formats and the UE may determine a PUCCH formatbased on a size of the UCI (e.g., a number of uplink symbols of UCItransmission and a number of UCI bits). PUCCH format 0 may have a lengthof one or two OFDM symbols and may include two or fewer bits. The UE maytransmit UCI in a PUCCH resource using PUCCH format 0 if thetransmission is over one or two symbols and the number of HARQ-ACKinformation bits with positive or negative SR (HARQ-ACK/SR bits) is oneor two. PUCCH format 1 may occupy a number between four and fourteenOFDM symbols and may include two or fewer bits. The UE may use PUCCHformat 1 if the transmission is four or more symbols and the number ofHARQ-ACK/SR bits is one or two. PUCCH format 2 may occupy one or twoOFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. The UE may use PUCCHformat 2 if the transmission is over one or two symbols and the numberof UCI bits is two or more. PUCCH format 3 may occupy a number betweenfour and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. TheUE may use PUCCH format 3 if the transmission is four or more symbols,the number of UCI bits is two or more and PUCCH resource does notinclude an orthogonal cover code. PUCCH format 4 may occupy a numberbetween four and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include more than twobits. The UE may use PUCCH format 4 if the transmission is four or moresymbols, the number of UCI bits is two or more and the PUCCH resourceincludes an orthogonal cover code.

The base station may transmit configuration parameters to the UE for aplurality of PUCCH resource sets using, for example, an RRC message. Theplurality of PUCCH resource sets (e.g., up to four sets) may beconfigured on an uplink BWP of a cell. A PUCCH resource set may beconfigured with a PUCCH resource set index, a plurality of PUCCHresources with a PUCCH resource being identified by a PUCCH resourceidentifier (e.g., pucch-Resourceid), and/or a number (e.g. a maximumnumber) of UCI information bits the UE may transmit using one of theplurality of PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set. When configuredwith a plurality of PUCCH resource sets, the UE may select one of theplurality of PUCCH resource sets based on a total bit length of the UCIinformation bits (e.g., HARQ-ACK, SR, and/or CSI). If the total bitlength of UCI information bits is two or fewer, the UE may select afirst PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to “0”.If the total bit length of UCI information bits is greater than two andless than or equal to a first configured value, the UE may select asecond PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to“1”. If the total bit length of UCI information bits is greater than thefirst configured value and less than or equal to a second configuredvalue, the UE may select a third PUCCH resource set having a PUCCHresource set index equal to “2”. If the total bit length of UCIinformation bits is greater than the second configured value and lessthan or equal to a third value (e.g., 1406), the UE may select a fourthPUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to “3”.

After determining a PUCCH resource set from a plurality of PUCCHresource sets, the UE may determine a PUCCH resource from the PUCCHresource set for UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI, and/or SR) transmission. The UE maydetermine the PUCCH resource based on a PUCCH resource indicator in aDCI (e.g., with a DCI format 1_0 or DCI for 1_1) received on a PDCCH. Athree-bit PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI may indicate one of eightPUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set. Based on the PUCCH resourceindicator, the UE may transmit the UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI and/or SR) using aPUCCH resource indicated by the PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a wireless device 1502 incommunication with a base station 1504 in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure. The wireless device 1502 and base station 1504may be part of a mobile communication network, such as the mobilecommunication network 100 illustrated in FIG. 1A, the mobilecommunication network 150 illustrated in FIG. 1B, or any othercommunication network. Only one wireless device 1502 and one basestation 1504 are illustrated in FIG. 15, but it will be understood thata mobile communication network may include more than one UE and/or morethan one base station, with the same or similar configuration as thoseshown in FIG. 15.

The base station 1504 may connect the wireless device 1502 to a corenetwork (not shown) through radio communications over the air interface(or radio interface) 1506. The communication direction from the basestation 1504 to the wireless device 1502 over the air interface 1506 isknown as the downlink, and the communication direction from the wirelessdevice 1502 to the base station 1504 over the air interface is known asthe uplink. Downlink transmissions may be separated from uplinktransmissions using FDD, TDD, and/or some combination of the twoduplexing techniques.

In the downlink, data to be sent to the wireless device 1502 from thebase station 1504 may be provided to the processing system 1508 of thebase station 1504. The data may be provided to the processing system1508 by, for example, a core network. In the uplink, data to be sent tothe base station 1504 from the wireless device 1502 may be provided tothe processing system 1518 of the wireless device 1502. The processingsystem 1508 and the processing system 1518 may implement layer 3 andlayer 2 OSI functionality to process the data for transmission. Layer 2may include an SDAP layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, and a MAC layer,for example, with respect to FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4A.Layer 3 may include an RRC layer as with respect to FIG. 2B.

After being processed by processing system 1508, the data to be sent tothe wireless device 1502 may be provided to a transmission processingsystem 1510 of base station 1504. Similarly, after being processed bythe processing system 1518, the data to be sent to base station 1504 maybe provided to a transmission processing system 1520 of the wirelessdevice 1502. The transmission processing system 1510 and thetransmission processing system 1520 may implement layer 1 OSIfunctionality. Layer 1 may include a PHY layer with respect to FIG. 2A,FIG. 2B, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4A. For transmit processing, the PHY layer mayperform, for example, forward error correction coding of transportchannels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping of transport channels tophysical channels, modulation of physical channel, multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) or multi-antenna processing, and/or the like.

At the base station 1504, a reception processing system 1512 may receivethe uplink transmission from the wireless device 1502. At the wirelessdevice 1502, a reception processing system 1522 may receive the downlinktransmission from base station 1504. The reception processing system1512 and the reception processing system 1522 may implement layer 1 OSIfunctionality. Layer 1 may include a PHY layer with respect to FIG. 2A,FIG. 2B, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4A. For receive processing, the PHY layer mayperform, for example, error detection, forward error correctiondecoding, deinterleaving, demapping of transport channels to physicalchannels, demodulation of physical channels, MIMO or multi-antennaprocessing, and/or the like.

As shown in FIG. 15, a wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504may include multiple antennas. The multiple antennas may be used toperform one or more MIMO or multi-antenna techniques, such as spatialmultiplexing (e.g., single-user MIMO or multi-user MIMO),transmit/receive diversity, and/or beamforming. In other examples, thewireless device 1502 and/or the base station 1504 may have a singleantenna.

The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may beassociated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readablemediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may beexecuted by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the presentapplication. Although not shown in FIG. 15, the transmission processingsystem 1510, the transmission processing system 1520, the receptionprocessing system 1512, and/or the reception processing system 1522 maybe coupled to a memory (e.g., one or more non-transitory computerreadable mediums) storing computer program instructions or code that maybe executed to carry out one or more of their respectivefunctionalities.

The processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 maycomprise one or more controllers and/or one or more processors. The oneor more controllers and/or one or more processors may comprise, forexample, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP),a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA) and/or other programmable logicdevice, discrete gate and/or transistor logic, discrete hardwarecomponents, an on-board unit, or any combination thereof. The processingsystem 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 may perform at least oneof signal coding/processing, data processing, power control,input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that may enablethe wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504 to operate in awireless environment.

The processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 may beconnected to one or more peripherals 1516 and one or more peripherals1526, respectively. The one or more peripherals 1516 and the one or moreperipherals 1526 may include software and/or hardware that providefeatures and/or functionalities, for example, a speaker, a microphone, akeypad, a display, a touchpad, a power source, a satellite transceiver,a universal serial bus (USB) port, a hands-free headset, a frequencymodulated (FM) radio unit, a media player, an Internet browser, anelectronic control unit (e.g., for a motor vehicle), and/or one or moresensors (e.g., an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a temperature sensor, aradar sensor, a lidar sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a light sensor, acamera, and/or the like). The processing system 1508 and/or theprocessing system 1518 may receive user input data from and/or provideuser output data to the one or more peripherals 1516 and/or the one ormore peripherals 1526. The processing system 1518 in the wireless device1502 may receive power from a power source and/or may be configured todistribute the power to the other components in the wireless device1502. The power source may comprise one or more sources of power, forexample, a battery, a solar cell, a fuel cell, or any combinationthereof. The processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518may be connected to a GPS chipset 1517 and a GPS chipset 1527,respectively. The GPS chipset 1517 and the GPS chipset 1527 may beconfigured to provide geographic location information of the wirelessdevice 1502 and the base station 1504, respectively.

FIG. 16A illustrates an example structure for uplink transmission. Abaseband signal representing a physical uplink shared channel mayperform one or more functions. The one or more functions may comprise atleast one of: scrambling; modulation of scrambled bits to generatecomplex-valued symbols; mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbolsonto one or several transmission layers; transform precoding to generatecomplex-valued symbols; precoding of the complex-valued symbols; mappingof precoded complex-valued symbols to resource elements; generation ofcomplex-valued time-domain Single Carrier-Frequency Division MultipleAccess (SC-FDMA) or CP-OFDM signal for an antenna port; and/or the like.In an example, when transform precoding is enabled, a SC-FDMA signal foruplink transmission may be generated. In an example, when transformprecoding is not enabled, an CP-OFDM signal for uplink transmission maybe generated by FIG. 16A. These functions are illustrated as examplesand it is anticipated that other mechanisms may be implemented invarious embodiments.

FIG. 16B illustrates an example structure for modulation andup-conversion of a baseband signal to a carrier frequency. The basebandsignal may be a complex-valued SC-FDMA or CP-OFDM baseband signal for anantenna port and/or a complex-valued Physical Random Access Channel(PRACH) baseband signal. Filtering may be employed prior totransmission.

FIG. 16C illustrates an example structure for downlink transmissions. Abaseband signal representing a physical downlink channel may perform oneor more functions. The one or more functions may comprise: scrambling ofcoded bits in a codeword to be transmitted on a physical channel;modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued modulationsymbols; mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbols onto one orseveral transmission layers; precoding of the complex-valued modulationsymbols on a layer for transmission on the antenna ports; mapping ofcomplex-valued modulation symbols for an antenna port to resourceelements; generation of complex-valued time-domain OFDM signal for anantenna port; and/or the like. These functions are illustrated asexamples and it is anticipated that other mechanisms may be implementedin various embodiments.

FIG. 16D illustrates another example structure for modulation andup-conversion of a baseband signal to a carrier frequency. The basebandsignal may be a complex-valued OFDM baseband signal for an antenna port.Filtering may be employed prior to transmission.

A wireless device may receive from a base station one or more messages(e.g. RRC messages) comprising configuration parameters of a pluralityof cells (e.g. primary cell, secondary cell). The wireless device maycommunicate with at least one base station (e.g. two or more basestations in dual-connectivity) via the plurality of cells. The one ormore messages (e.g. as a part of the configuration parameters) maycomprise parameters of physical, MAC, RLC, PCDP, SDAP, RRC layers forconfiguring the wireless device. For example, the configurationparameters may comprise parameters for configuring physical and MAClayer channels, bearers, etc. For example, the configuration parametersmay comprise parameters indicating values of timers for physical, MAC,RLC, PCDP, SDAP, RRC layers, and/or communication channels.

A timer may begin running once it is started and continue running untilit is stopped or until it expires. A timer may be started if it is notrunning or restarted if it is running. A timer may be associated with avalue (e.g. the timer may be started or restarted from a value or may bestarted from zero and expire once it reaches the value). The duration ofa timer may not be updated until the timer is stopped or expires (e.g.,due to BWP switching). A timer may be used to measure a timeperiod/window for a process. When the specification refers to animplementation and procedure related to one or more timers, it will beunderstood that there are multiple ways to implement the one or moretimers. For example, it will be understood that one or more of themultiple ways to implement a timer may be used to measure a timeperiod/window for the procedure. For example, a random access responsewindow timer may be used for measuring a window of time for receiving arandom access response. In an example, instead of starting and expiry ofa random access response window timer, the time difference between twotime stamps may be used. When a timer is restarted, a process formeasurement of time window may be restarted. Other exampleimplementations may be provided to restart a measurement of a timewindow.

In an example, a small data transmission (SDT) in a wireless network(e.g., LTE, 5G, new radio, NR, etc.) may be interpreted as an early datatransmission (EDT). The term of SDT and the term of EDT may beinterchangeable to each other. The early data transmission performedinitially for uplink data transmission may be called as a mobileoriginating early data transmission (MO-EDT), an uplink EDT, an uplinkSDT, a mobile originating SDT (MO-SDT), and/or the like. The early datatransmission performed initially for downlink data transmission (e.g.,initiated based on a paging procedure) may be called as a mobileterminating early data transmission (MT-EDT), a downlink EDT, a downlinkSDT, a mobile terminating SDT (MT-SDT), and/or the like. In an example,an SDT (e.g., EDT) may comprise data transmission/reception (e.g.,initial DL/UL data and/or subsequent UL/DL data) of a wireless deviceto/from a base station without the wireless device transitioning to anRRC connected state (e.g., data transmission/reception of the wirelessdevice being in an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state).

In an example, MO-EDT may allow one uplink data transmission optionallyfollowed by at least one downlink data transmission during and/or aftera random access procedure. MO-EDT may be triggered when upper layersrequests establishment or resumption of an RRC connection for mobileoriginating data (e.g., may be not signaling or SMS) and/or uplink datasize may be less than or equal to a transport block (TB) size indicatedin system information. MO-EDT may not be used for data over a controlplane when using user plane cellular Internet of things (CIoT) EPS/5GSoptimizations. MO-EDT may be applicable to bandwidth reduced lowcomplexity (BL) UEs, UEs in enhanced coverage (e.g., coverageenhancement UE, CE UE), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) UEs, and/or reducedcapability (RedCap) UEs.

In an example, MO-EDT for Control Plane CIoT EPS optimization and/orControl Plane CIoT 5GS Optimization may be characterized as followings.Uplink user data may be transmitted in a NAS message concatenated in ULRRCEarlyDataRequest message on CCCH. Downlink user data may beoptionally transmitted in a NAS message concatenated in DLRRCEarlyDataComplete message on CCCH. UE may not transition to RRCCONNECTED.

FIG. 17 shows an example of an MO-EDT procedure for Control Plane CIoTEPS optimization and/or Control Plane CIoT 5GS Optimization. Uponconnection establishment request for Mobile originating (MO) data fromupper layers, a UE may initiate an MO-EDT procedure and/or may select arandom access preamble configured for EDT. UE may perform a randomaccess procedure by sending the selected random access preamble. UE maysend an RRC Early Data Request message concatenating user data on CCCH.For EPS or 5GS if enabled in a cell a UE may indicate AS ReleaseAssistance Information (RAI). For EPS, an eNB or a gNB may initiate anS1-AP Initial UE message procedure to forward a NAS message and/orestablish an S1 connection. For 5GS, an ng-eNB or a gNB may initiate anNG-AP Initial UE message procedure to forward a NAS message. An (ng-)eNBor a gNB may indicate that the connection is triggered for EDT (and/orSDT).

For EPS, an MME may request an S-GW to re-activate EPS bearers for a UE.For 5GS, an AMF may determine a PDU session contained/indicated in a NASmessage from a UE. For EPS, an MME may send uplink data to an S-GW. For5GS, an AMF may send a PDU Session ID and/or uplink data to an SMFand/or the SMF may forward the uplink data to a UPF. For EPS, ifdownlink data are available, an S-GW may send the downlink data to anMME. For 5GS, if downlink data are available, a UPF may forward thedownlink data to an SMF and/or the SMF may forward the downlink data toan AMF. If downlink data are received from an S-GW and/or SMF, an MME oran AMF may forward the downlink data to an eNB/ng-eNB or a gNB via DLNAS Transport procedure and/or may indicate whether further data areexpected. In an example, an MME or an AMF may trigger a ConnectionEstablishment Indication procedure and/or may indicate whether furtherdata are expected. In an example, If no further data are expected, an(ng-)eNB or a gNB may send an RRCEarlyDataComplete message on CCCH tokeep a UE in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE. If downlink data were received,the downlink data may be concatenated in the RRCEarlyDataCompletemessage.

For EPS, an S1 connection may be released and/or EPS bearers may bedeactivated. For 5GS, an AN release procedure is started. If an MME/AMFor an (ng-)eNB or gNB decides to move a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state, anRRCConnectionSetup message or an RRCResume message may be sent to fallback to an RRC Connection establishment/setup/resume procedure. An(ng-)eNB or gNB may discard a zero-length NAS PDU received inRRCConnectionSetupComplete message. If neither RRCEarlyDataComplete nor,in case of fallback, RRCConnectionSetup/establishment/resume is receivedin response to RRCEarlyDataRequest, a UE may consider an UL datatransmission is not successful.

In an example, MO-EDT for User Plane CIoT EPS optimization and/or UserPlane CIoT 5GS Optimization may be characterized as followings. A UE maybe provided with a NextHopChainingCount (NCC) in an RRCConnectionReleasemessage and/or an RRC release message with suspend indication. Uplinkuser data may be transmitted on DTCH multiplexed with an ULRRCConnectionResumeRequest message or an RRC resume request message onCCCH. Downlink user data may be optionally transmitted on DTCHmultiplexed with a DL RRCConnectionRelease message and/or an RRC releasemessage on DCCH. A short resume MAC-I (shortResumeMAC-I) may be reusedas an authentication token for RRCConnectionResumeRequest message and/orRRC resume request message. A short resume MAC-I may be calculated usingan integrity key from a previous connection. User data in uplink and/ordownlink may be ciphered. The keys may be derived using aNextHopChainingCount (NCC) provided in an RRCConnectionRelease messageand/or RRC release message of a previous RRC connection. AnRRCConnectionRelease message and/or an RRC release message may beintegrity protected and/or ciphered using newly derived keys. There maybe no transition to RRC CONNECTED from an RRC idle state and/or an RRCinactive state.

FIG. 18 shows an example of an MO-EDT procedure for User Plane CIoT EPSoptimization and/or User Plane CIoT 5GS Optimization. Upon connectionresumption request for Mobile originating data from upper layers, a UEmay initiate an MO-EDT procedure and/or may select a random accesspreamble configured for EDT. A UE may send an RRCConnectionResumeRequestto an eNB and/or a gNB, comprising a Resume ID, an establishment cause,and/or an authentication token. A UE may resume all SRBs and/or DRBs. AUE may resume some of SRBs and/or DRBs configured in a previous RRCconnection. A UE may derive new security keys using aNextHopChainingCount provided in an RRCConnectionRelease message of aprevious RRC connection and/or may re-establish an AS security. Userdata may be ciphered and/or transmitted via DTCH multiplexed with anRRCConnectionResumeRequest message on CCCH. If enabled in a cell, a UEmay indicate AS Release Assistance Information (RAI). An eNB mayinitiate an S1-AP Context Resume procedure to resume an S1 connectionand/or re-activate S1-U bearers. An MME may request an S-GW tore-activate S1-U bearers for a UE. An MME may confirm a UE contextresumption to an eNB. Uplink data may be delivered to an S-GW. Ifdownlink data are available, an S-GW may send the downlink data to aneNB. If no further data are expected, an eNB may initiate suspension ofan S1 connection and/or deactivation of S1-U bearers for a UE. An eNBmay send an RRCConnectionRelease message and/or an RRC release messageto keep a UE in RRC_IDLE state and/or RRC inactive state. AnRRCConnectionRelease message and/or an RRC release message may comprisea releaseCause set to rrc-Suspend, a resumeID, a NextHopChainingCount(NCC), and/or drb-ContinueROHC that may be stored by a UE. If downlinkdata is received, the downlink data may be sent ciphered via DTCHmultiplexed with an RRCConnectionRelease message and/or an RRC releasemessage via DCCH.

As shown in FIG. 18, upon connection resumption request for Mobileoriginating data from the upper layers, a UE may initiate an MO-EDTprocedure and/or may select a random access preamble configured for EDT.A UE may send an RRCConnectionResumeRequest and/or an RRC resume requestmessage to an ng-eNB and/or a gNB, comprising an I-RNTI, a resume cause,and/or an authentication token. A UE may resume all SRBs and DRBs. A UEmay resume some of SRBs and/or DRBs configured in a previous RRCconnection. A UE may derive new security keys using aNextHopChainingCount (NCC) provided in an RRCConnectionRelease messageand/or an RRC release message of a previous connection and/or mayre-establish an AS security. User data may be ciphered and/ortransmitted via DTCH multiplexed with an RRCConnectionResumeRequestmessage and/or an RRC resume message on CCCH. A UE may indicate ASRelease Assistance Information (RAI). Uplink data may be delivered to anUPF. An ng-eNB and/or a gNB may send a NG-AP Context Resume Requestmessage to an AMF to resume a connection. If a UE included AS ReleaseAssistance information indicating No further UL/DL higher layer PDU, anng-eNB and/or a gNB may request for immediate transition to RRC IDLEwith Suspend and/or an RRC inactive state. If an AMF does not receive arequest for immediate transition to RRC IDLE with Suspend and/or an RRCinactive state or the AMF is aware of downlink data or signalingpending, the AMF may request an SMF to resume a PDU session. An AMF maysend an NG-AP Context Resume Response to a ng-eNB and/or a gNB. If anAMF receive a request for immediate transition to RRC IDLE with Suspendand/or an RRC inactive state and/or if there is no downlink data orsignaling pending, the AMF may include a Suspend indication. An AMF maykeep a UE in CM-IDLE with Suspend. If an AMF includes Suspendindication, an ng-eNB and/or a gNB may proceed an RRC release procedurewith suspend. If an AMF does not include Suspend indication and/or if aUE included AS Release Assistance information indicating a singleDownlink Data transmission subsequent to an Uplink transmission, anng-eNB and/or a gNB may wait for downlink data to arrive. An ng-eNBand/or a gNB may initiate an NG-AP UE Context Suspend procedure toinform an AMF that an RRC connection may be suspended. An AMF mayrequest an SMF to suspend a PDU session. An SMF may request a UPF torelease tunnel information for a UE. an eNB/ng-eNB and/or a gNB may sendan RRCConnectionRelease message and/or an RRC release message to keep aUE in RRC_IDLE and/or an RRC inactive state. An RRCConnectionReleasemessage and/or an RRC release message may comprise a releaseCause thatmay be set to rrc-Suspend, an I-RNTI, a NextHopChainingCount (NCC),and/or drb-ContinueROHC that may be stored by a UE. If downlink data(e.g., subsequent downlink data) are received, the downlink data may besent ciphered via DTCH multiplexed with an RRCConnectionRelease messageand/or an RRC release message on DCCH.

In an example, if an MME/AMF or (ng-)eNB/gNB decides a UE to move inRRC_CONNECTED state, RRCConnectionResume message and/or RRC resume/setupmessage may be sent to fall back to an RRC Connection resume procedure.An RRCConnectionResume message and/or an RRC resume/setup message may beintegrity protected and/or ciphered with keys derived. A UE may ignore aNextHopChainingCount (NCC) included in an RRCConnectionResume messageand/or an RRC resume message. Downlink data may be transmitted via DTCHmultiplexed with an RRCConnectionResume message and/or an RRCresume/setup message. An RRCConnectionSetup and/or an RRC setup messagemay be sent to fall back to an RRC Connection establishment/setupprocedure. In an example, if neither RRCConnectionRelease message (RRCrelease message) nor RRCConnectionResume message (RRC resume/setupmessage) is received in response to an RRCConnectionResumeRequestmessage and/or an RRC resume request message for MO-EDT, a UE mayconsider uplink data transmission not successful.

In an example, as shown in FIG. 19, for MO-EDT for User Plane CIoT EPSOptimization and/or User Plane CIoT 5GS Optimization, an RRC connectionmay be resumed in an (ng-)eNB (e.g., new (ng-)eNB) and/or a gNB (e.g.,new gNB) different from a base station where an RRC connection wassuspended (old (ng-)eNB and/or old gNB). Inter (ng-)eNB or inter gNBconnection resumption may be handled using context fetching. A new(ng-)eNB or a new gNB may retrieve UE contexts from an old (ng-)eNBand/or an old gNB over an X2 (Xn) interface. A new (ng-)eNB or new gNBmay provide a Resume ID for EPS or I-RNTI for 5GS that may be used by anold (ng-)eNB or an old gNB to identify UE contexts of a UE.

FIG. 19 shows an example of an MO-EDT procedure for User Plane CIoT EPSoptimization and/or User Plane CIoT 5GS Optimization in a differenteNB/ng-eNB and/or a different gNB (e.g., base station relocation case).A new (ng-)eNB or a new gNB may locate/determine an old (ng-)eNB using aResume ID (e.g., for EPS) or I-RNTI (e.g., for 5GS) and/or may retrieveUE contexts by performing a Retrieve UE Context procedure via an X2-AP(for EPS) or an Xn-AP (for 5GS). An old (ng-)eNB may respond with UEcontexts associated with a Resume ID (e.g., for EPS) or I-RNTI (e.g.,for 5GS). For EPS, a new eNB or a new gNB may initiate an S1-AP PathSwitch procedure to establish an S1 UE associated signaling connectionto a serving MME and/or to request the MME to resume UE contexts. For5GS, a new ng-eNB or a new gNB may initiate an NG-AP Path Switchprocedure to establish a NG UE associated signaling connection to aserving AMF and/or to request the AMF to resume UE contexts. For EPS, anMME may request an S-GW to activate S1-U bearers for a UE and/or mayupdate a downlink path. For 5GS, an AMF may request an SMF to resume aPDU session. An SMF may request a UPF to create tunnel information for aUE and/or update a downlink path. For EPS, after an S1-AP Path Switchprocedure a new eNB and/or a new gNB may trigger release of UE contextsat an old eNB or an old gNB by performing a UE Context Release procedurevia an X2-AP. For 5GS, after an NG-AP Path Switch procedure a new ng-eNBand/or a new gNB may trigger release of UE contexts at an old ng-eNBand/or an old gNB by performing UE Context Release procedure via anXn-AP. Uplink data may be delivered to an S-GW and/or a UPF.

In an example, MT-EDT may be for a single downlink data transmissionduring a random access procedure. MT-EDT may be initiated by an MME, anAMF/SMF, or a gNB if a UE and/or a network supports MT-EDT and/or ifthere is a single DL data transmission for the UE. MT-EDT for ControlPlane CIoT EPS/5GS Optimization and/or for User Plane CIoT EPS/5GSOptimization may be characterized as followings. Support for MT-EDT forControl Plane CIoT EPS/5GS Optimization and/or for User Plane CIoTEPS/5GS Optimization may be reported by UE via NAS level signaling(e.g., via NAS message). Downlink data size may be included/indicated inan S1-AP or NG-AP Paging message for a UE. MT-EDT indication may beincluded in a Paging message for a UE over a Uu interface. For UserPlane CIoT EPS/5GS Optimization, a UE may be provided with aNextHopChainingCount (NCC) in an RRCConnectionRelease message and/or anRRC release message with suspend indication. In response to a Pagingmessage including/comprising MT-EDT indication, a UE may trigger anMO-EDT procedure for Control Plane CIoT EPS/5GS Optimization or for UserPlane CIoT EPS/5GS Optimization if upper layers request establishment orresumption of an RRC Connection for Mobile Terminated Call. UEperforming an MT-EDT may not transition to an RRC CONNECTED state.MT-EDT may be applicable to BL UEs, UEs in enhanced coverage (e.g., CEUE), and/or NB-IoT UEs.

In an example, transmission using preconfigured uplink resource (PUR)may allow at least one uplink transmission from RRC_IDLE (RRC idlestate) and/or RRC_INACTIVE (RRC inactive state) using a PUR withoutperforming the random access procedure. Transmission using PUR may beenabled by an (ng-)eNB and/or a gNB if the UE and/or the (ng-)eNBsupport.

In an example, a UE may request to be configured with a PUR and/or tohave a PUR configuration released while in RRC_CONNECTED mode/state. The(ng-)eNB/gNB may decide to configure a PUR that may be based on UE'srequest, UE's subscription information, and/or local policy. The PUR maybe valid in the cell where the configuration was received.

Transmission using PUR may be triggered when upper layers of UE requestestablishment or resumption of an RRC Connection. Transmission using PURmay be triggered when a UE has data to transmit. Transmission using PURmay be triggered when a UE has a valid PUR for transmission and/or meetsa TA validation criteria. Transmission using PUR may be applicable to BLUEs, UEs in enhanced coverage, and/or NB-IoT UEs. FIG. 23 shows anexample of transmission using PUR.

In an example, as shown in FIG. 20, a procedure for PUR configurationrequest and/or PUR configuration may be used for a Control Plane CIoTEPS/5GS optimizations and/or a User Plane CIoT EPS/5GS optimizations. AUE may send PUR configuration request to a base station (e.g., gNB,eNB). The base station may send an RRC connection release indication andPUR configuration parameters to the UE. The PUR configuration parametersmay be based on the PUR configuration request. In an example, as shownin FIG. 20, a UE may be in RRC_CONNECTED and a PUR may be enabled in acell. The UE may indicate to a (ng-)eNB or gNB that the UE is interestedin being configured with PUR by sending PUR Configuration Requestmessage providing information about the requested resource (e.g., numberof occurrences, periodicity, time offset, TBS, RRC Ack, etc.). The UEmay indicate to the (ng-)eNB or gNB in the PURConfigurationRequestmessage that the UE is interested in the configured PUR to be released.When the (ng-)eNB or gNB moves the UE to RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE (e.g.,based on a precedent UE PUR configuration request, subscriptioninformation, and/or local policies) the (ng-)eNB or gNB may decide toprovide a PUR resource to the UE or to release an existing PUR resource.The (ng-)eNB or gNB may include parameters of the PUR configuration or aPUR release indication in the RRC Connection Release message. For UEsusing the Control Plane CIoT EPS/5GS optimizations, the (ng-)eNB or gNBmay provide a PUR configuration ID with the PUR configuration. Ifavailable, the UE may include the PUR configuration ID in RRC ConnectionSetup/Resume Complete message when establishing/resuming RRCconnection(s) not using the PUR resource.

In an example, the PUR configuration may be released at the UE and/or(ng-)eNB/gNB, when the UE accesses in another cell, when PUR is nolonger enabled in the cell, and/or when the PUR resource has not beenused for a configured number of consecutive occasions. In an example, aUE and PUR configuration may be linked according to configured PURresources.

In an example, FIG. 21 shows an example of transmission using PUR forControl Plane CIoT EPS Optimization and/or for Control Plane CIoT 5GSOptimization. Uplink user data may be transmitted using the PUR resourcein a NAS message concatenated in RRC Early Data Request message on CCCH.If there is no downlink data, the (ng-)eNB or gNB may terminate theprocedure by sending a layer 1 acknowledgement optionally containing aTime Advance Command, a MAC Time advance Command, and/or RRC Early DataComplete with no user data. Downlink user data may be transmitted in aNAS message concatenated in RRC Early Data Complete message on CCCH. AUE may not transition to RRC CONNECTED.

In FIG. 21, a UE may determine that the PUR resource can be used (e.g.,PUR enabled in the cell, valid Time Alignment, etc.). The UE maytransmit over the PUR resource. If the uplink data are too large to beincluded in RRC Early Data Request, the UE may use the PUR resource totransmit RRC Connection Request. The procedure may fall back to an RRCConnection establishment procedure and/or a new C-RNTI may be assigned.The (ng-)eNB or gNB may request the UE to abort the transmission usingPUR by sending a Layer 1 fallback indication. In an example, for EPS,the eNB or gNB may initiate the S1-AP or N2/3 Initial UE messageprocedure to forward the NAS message and/or may establish the S1 orN2/N3 connection. For 5GS, the ng-eNB or gNB may initiate the NG-APInitial UE message procedure to forward the NAS message. The (ng-)eNB orgNB may indicate that this connection is triggered for EDT. In anexample, for EPS, the MME may requests the S-GW to re-activate the EPSbearers for the UE. For 5GS, the AMF may determine the PDU sessioncontained in the NAS message. For EPS, the MME may send the uplink datato the S-GW. For 5GS, the AMF may send the PDU Session ID and/or theuplink data to the SMF. The SMF may forward the uplink data to the UPF.In an example, for EPS, if downlink data are available, the S-GW maysend the downlink data to the MME. For 5GS, if downlink data areavailable, the UPF may forward the downlink data to SMF. The SMF mayforward the downlink data to AMF. If downlink data are received from theS-GW or SMF, the MME or AMF may forward the data to the eNB/ng-eNB orgNB via DL NAS Transport procedure and/or may indicate whether furtherdata are expected. In an example, the MME or AMF may trigger ConnectionEstablishment Indication procedure and/or may indicate whether furtherdata are expected. If the (ng-)eNB or gNB is aware that there is nofurther data or signaling, the (ng-)eNB or gNB may send a Time AdvanceCommand to update the TA and/or terminate the procedure. In an example,if no further data are expected, the (ng-)eNB or gNB may send the RRCEarly Data Complete message on CCCH to keep the UE in RRC_IDLE orRRC_INACTIVE. If downlink data were received, the downlink data may beconcatenated in RRC Early Data Complete message. In an example, If theMME/AMF or the (ng-)eNB/gNB decides to move the UE to RRC_CONNECTEDmode, RRC Connection Setup message may be sent to fall back to the RRCConnection establishment procedure and/or a new C-RNTI may be assigned.The (ng-)eNB or gNB may discard a zero-length NAS PDU received in RRCConnection Setup Complete message. In an example, if none of Layer 1Ack, MAC Time advance Command, RRC Early Data Complete, and/or, in caseof fallback, RRC Connection Setup is received in response to RRC EarlyData Request, the UE may consider the UL data transmission notsuccessful.

In an example, as shown in FIG. 22, a UE may transmit data using PUR forUser Plane CIoT EPS Optimization and/or for User Plane CIoT 5GSOptimization. The UE may be in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE and/or has avalid PUR resource. The UE may be provided with a Next Hop ChainingCount in the RRC Connection Release message with suspend indication.Uplink user data may be transmitted on DTCH multiplexed with RRCConnection Resume Request message on CCCH. Downlink user data may beoptionally transmitted on DTCH multiplexed with RRC Connection Releasemessage on DCCH. The user data in uplink and downlink may be ciphered.The keys may be derived using the Next Hop Chaining Count provided inthe RRC Connection Release message of the previous RRC connection. TheRRC Connection Release message may be integrity protected and/orciphered using the newly derived keys. The UE may not transition to RRCCONNECTED. In an example, the UE may transmit data using PUR for theUser Plane CIoT EPS optimization and for the User Plane CIoT 5GSoptimization.

In FIG. 22, the UE may validate the PUR resource according to theconfigured criteria (e.g., TA validation, RSRP validation, etc.). In anexample, the UE may transmit over the PUR resource instead of a resourceallocated in the random access response. The UE may send an RRCConnection Resume Request to the eNB or gNB, including its Resume ID,the establishment cause, and/or an authentication token. The UE mayresume SRBs and DRBs. The UE may derive new security keys using theNextHopChainingCount provided in the RRC Connection Release message ofthe previous RRC connection and/or may re-establish the AS security. Theuser data may be ciphered and/or transmitted on DTCH multiplexed withthe RRC Connection Resume Request message on CCCH. If enabled in thecell, the UE may indicate AS Release Assistance Information. The UE maysend an RRCConnectionResumeRequest to the ng-eNB or gNB, including itsI-RNTI, the resume cause, and/or an authentication token. The UE mayresume SRBs and DRBs. The UE may derive new security keys using the NextHop Chaining Count provided in the RRC Connection Release message of theprevious connection and re-establishes the AS security. The user datamay be ciphered and transmitted on DTCH multiplexed with the RRCConnection Resume Request message on CCCH. The UE may indicate ASRelease Assistance Information. If the user data are too large to beincluded in the transmission using PUR, the UE may use PUR to transmitRRC Connection Resume Request and a segment of the user data. Theprocedure may be fall back to the RRC Connection Resume procedure. A newC-RNTI may be assigned. The (ng-)eNB or gNB may request the UE to abortthe transmission using PUR by sending a Layer 1 fallback indication.

In an example, the eNB or gNB may initiate the S1-AP Context Resumeprocedure to resume the S1 connection and re-activate the S1-U bearers.The MME may request the S-GW to re-activate the S1-U bearers for the UE.The MME may confirm the UE context resumption to the eNB or gNB. Theuplink data may be delivered to the S-GW. If downlink data areavailable, the S-GW may send the downlink data to the eNB or gNB. If nofurther data are expected, the eNB or gNB may initiate the suspension ofthe S1 connection and/or the deactivation of the S1-U bearers.

In an example, the uplink data may be delivered to the UPF. The ng-eNBor gNB may send a NG-AP Context Resume Request message to the AMF toresume the connection. If the UE included AS Release Assistanceinformation indicating No further UL/DL higher layer PDU, ng-eNB or gNBmay request for immediate transition to RRC_IDLE with Suspend and/orRRC_INACTIVE. In an example, If the AMF does not receive a request forimmediate transition to RRC IDLE with Suspend or the AMF is aware ofdownlink data or signaling pending, the AMF may request the SMF toresume the PDU session. The AMF may send a NG-AP Context Resume Responseto the ng-eNB or gNB. If the AMF receives a request for immediatetransition to RRC IDLE with Suspend and/or there is no downlink data orsignaling pending, the AMF may include a Suspend indication and/or maykeep the UE in CM-IDLE with Suspend. In an example, if the AMF does notinclude Suspend indication and/or the UE included AS Release Assistanceinformation indicating Only a single Downlink Data transmissionsubsequent to the Uplink transmission, the ng-eNB or gNB may wait forthe DL data to arrive. The ng-eNB or gNB may initiate the NG-AP UEContext Suspend procedure to inform the AMF that the RRC connection isbeing suspended. The AMF may request the SMF to suspend the PDU session.The SMF may request the UPF to release the tunnel information for theUE.

The eNB or gNB may send the RRCConnectionRelease message to keep the UEin RRC_IDLE. The message includes the releaseCause set to rrc-Suspend,the resumeID, the I-RNTI, the NextHopChainingCount and drb-ContinueROHCwhich are stored by the UE. If downlink data were received, the downlinkdata may be sent ciphered on DTCH multiplexed with theRRCConnectionRelease message on DCCH. In an example, the RRC connectionrelease message may include the Time Advance Command.

In an example, if the MME/AMF or the (ng-)eNB/gNB decides to move the UEto RRC_CONNECTED mode, RRC Connection Resume message may be sent to fallback to the RRC Connection resume procedure. The RRC Connection Resumemessage may be integrity protected and/or ciphered with the keys. The UEmay ignore the Next Hop Chaining Count included in the RRC ConnectionResume message. A new C-RNTI may be assigned. Downlink data may betransmitted on DTCH multiplexed with the RRC Connection Resume message.An RRC Connection Setup may be also be sent to fall back to the RRCConnection establishment procedure. If neither RRC Connection Releasenor, in case of fallback, RRC Connection Resume is received in responseto RRC Connection Resume Request using PUR, the UE may consider the ULdata transmission not successful.

In an example, transmission using PUR may be initiated by the RRC layer.When transmission using PUR is initiated, RRC layer may provide MAC withat least one of: PUR-RNTI, duration of PUR response windowpur-ResponseWindowSize, and/or UL grant information. In an example, Ifthe MAC entity has a PUR-RNTI, for TTI for which RRC layer provideduplink grant for transmission using PUR, the MAC entity may deliver theuplink grant and/or the associated HARQ information to the HARQ entityfor this TTI. After transmission using PUR, the MAC entity may monitorPDCCH identified by PUR-RNTI in the PUR response window using timerpur-ResponseWindowTimer. The PUR response window may start at thesubframe/slot/symbol that contains the end of the corresponding PUSCHtransmission plus 4 subframes/slot/symbol. The PUR response window mayhave the length pur-ResponseWindowSize. While pur-ResponseWindowTimer isrunning, the MAC entity may restart pur-ResponseWindowTimer at the lastsubframe/slot/symbol of a PUSCH transmission corresponding to theretransmission indicated by the UL grant plus 4 subframes/slots/symbolsif the PDCCH transmission is addressed to the PUR-RNTI and contains anUL grant for a retransmission. If L1 ACK for transmission using PUR isreceived from lower layers and/or if PDCCH transmission is addressed tothe PUR-RNTI and the MAC PDU is successfully decoded, the MAC entity maystop pur-ResponseWindowTimer. If L1 ACK for transmission using PUR isreceived from lower layers and/or the MAC PDU contains only TimingAdvance Command MAC control element, the MAC entity may indicate toupper layers the transmission using PUR was successful and/or maydiscard the PUR-RNTI. If repetition adjustment for transmission usingPUR is received from lower layers, the MAC entity may indicate the valueof the repetition adjustment to upper layers. In an example, if fallbackindication for PUR is received from lower layers, the MAC entity maystop pur-ResponseWindowTimer and/or may indicate to upper layers thatPUR fallback indication is received and/or may discard the PUR-RNTI. Ifrepetition adjustment for transmission using PUR is received from lowerlayers, the MAC entity may indicate the value of the repetitionadjustment to upper layers. If the pur-ResponseWindowTimer expires, theMAC entity may indicate to upper layers the transmission using PUR hasfailed and/or discard the PUR-RNTI.

In an example, the MAC entity may maintain timer pur-TimeAlignmentTimerby upper layers (e.g., RRC layer). In an example, the MAC entity maystart pur-TimeAlignmentTimer when pur-TimeAlignmentTimer configurationis received from upper layers. In an example, the MAC entity may stopthe pur-TimeAlignmentTimer when pur-TimeAlignmentTimer is released byupper layers. In an example, the MAC entity may apply the Timing AdvanceCommand or the timing advance adjustment and/or may start/restart thepur-TimeAlignmentTimer when a Timing Advance Command MAC control elementis received or PDCCH indicates timing advance adjustment. In an example,upon request from upper layers, MAC entity may indicate whetherpur-TimeAlignmentTimer is running.

In an example, a UE may consider the timing alignment value fortransmission using PUR to be valid when pur-TimeAlignmentTimer isrunning as confirmed by lower layers if pur-TimeAlignmentTimer isconfigured. In an example, a UE may consider the timing alignment valuefor transmission using PUR to be valid when, since the last TAvalidation, the serving cell RSRP has not increased by more thanincreaseThresh and/or the serving cell RSRP has not decreased by morethan decreaseThresh if pur-RSRP-ChangeThreshold(pur-NRSRP-ChangeThreshold in NB-IoT) is configured.

In an example, a UE configured with pur-Config may consider that thefirst PUR occasion occurs at the H-SFN/SFN/subframe given by H-SFNand/or SFN and subframe indicated by startSFN and startSubframe. H-SFNmay be determined based on (H-SFNRef+offset) mod 1024 occurring afterFLOOR (offset/1024) H-SFN cycles. The offset may be given byperiodicityAndOffset. H-SFNRef may correspond to the last subframe ofthe first transmission of RRC Connection Release message containingpur-Config, taking into account hsfn-LSB-Info. H-SFN cycle maycorrespond to a duration of 1024 H-SFNs.

In an example, in case that a pur-NumOccasions is set to one, for thefirst PUR occasion, if transmission using PUR is not initiated or iftransmission using PUR has been initiated, after the completion of thetransmission using PUR the UE may release pur-Config, may discardpreviously stored pur-Config, and/or may indicate to lower layers thatpur-TimeAlignmentTimer is released (e.g., if pur-TimeAlignmentTimer isconfigured).

In an example, in case that a pur-NumOccasions is not set to one (e.g.,periodic PUR configured) as shown in FIG. 23, a UE may consider thatsubsequent PUR occasions occur periodically after an occurrence of thefirst PUR occasion at the SFN/subframe indicated by startSubframe andstartSFN and periodicity given by periodicityAndOffset. In case that apur-ImplicitReleaseAfter is configured, for a PUR occasion occurringwhile the UE is in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE, if transmission using PURis not initiated or if PUR failure indication is received from lowerlayers, the UE may consider the PUR occasion as skipped. Ifpur-ImplicitReleaseAfter number of consecutive PUR occasions have beenskipped, the UE may release pur-Config, may discard previously storedpur-Config, and/or may indicate to lower layers thatpur-TimeAlignmentTimer is released if pur-TimeAlignmentTimer isconfigured.

In existing technologies, a base station may configure a small datatransmission (SDT) for a wireless device in an RRC inactive state or anRRC idle state to use for uplink transmissions and/or downlinkreceptions. In a functional split architecture of a base station, a basestation may be split into a base station central unit (CU) (e.g.,gNB-CU) comprising upper layer functions (e.g., an RRC layer) and one ormore base station distributed units (DUs) (e.g., gNB-DU) comprisinglower layer functions. In the functional split architecture of a basestation, as shown in FIG. 26, if a base station DU keeps storing SDTconfigurations for a wireless device when a base station CU determinesthat the wireless device leaves out of an RRC inactive state or an RRCidle state, resources of the base station DU may be wasted and operationoverload may increase. Hundreds of wireless devices may camp on a cellof a base station DU for SDT. Storing by a base station DU SDTconfigurations for wireless devices not using SDT may cause lack ofresources for the hundreds of wireless devices using SDT. When SDT isconfigured for a wireless device, a base station DU may need to keepmonitoring for an SDT request from the wireless device, for example,decoding signals that might be associated with an SDT request.Monitoring for an SDT request of a wireless device that does not use SDTmay increase operation overload of a base station DU. The existingtechnologies may decrease network operation efficiency.

In an example, in FIG. 26, the base station DU (gNB-DU) may receive theSDT configuration for the wireless device (UE) from the base station CU(gNB-CU) and may store the SDT configuration to use for an SDT of thewireless device being in an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. Thebase station CU may determine that the wireless device leaves out of theRRC inactive state or the RRC idle state. The determination of the RRCstate transition of the wireless device may be based on one or moremessages from the wireless device, a second base station DU, a secondbase station, a core network node (e.g., AMF, MME, SMF, etc.), and/orthe like. The base station DU may keep storing the SDT configurationsafter the base station CU determines the RRC state transition of thewireless device. Storing the SDT configurations after the RRC statetransition of the wireless device may increase inefficient resourceconfiguration and network operation complexity.

Example embodiments may support that a base station CU sends, to a basestation DU, an indication to release an SDT configuration that isconfigured to use for a wireless device being an RRC inactive state oran RRC idle state. The base station CU may determine to send theindication for the base station DU to release the SDT configurationbased on determining that the wireless device leaves out of the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state. The base station CU may determinethe RRC state transition of the wireless device based on receiving oneor more messages from the wireless device, a second base station DU, asecond base station, and/or a core network node (e.g., AMF, MME, SMF,etc.) explicitly or implicitly indicating the RRC state transition ofthe wireless device. The base station DU may release/delete the SDTconfigurations for the wireless device. Example embodiments may increaseefficiency of resource configuration of a base station and may reducenetwork operation complexity.

Example embodiments may support that a base station CU sends a storingindication for a base station DU to determine whether to store a SDTconfiguration for a wireless device after the wireless devicetransitions to an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. Based on thestoring indication for an SDT configuration, a base station DU mayselectively store UE contexts of a wireless device that transitions toan RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. For example, based on thestoring indication, a base station may delete UE contexts used for anRRC connection of a wireless device and may store UE contexts (e.g., SDTconfiguration) that may be used during the wireless device being in anRRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. Sending the storing indicationfor SDT configuration by a base station CU to a base station DU mayincrease resource configuration/utilization efficiency.

In an example, as shown in FIG. 25, a wireless device (UE) maycommunicate with a base station (gNB) comprising a base station CU(gNB-CU) and/or one or more base station DUs. The one or more basestation DUs may comprise a base station DU (gNB-DU) and/or a second basestation DU (gNB-DU2). The base station CU may comprise a base stationCU-CP (gNB-CU-CP) and/or a base station CU-UP (gNB-CU-UP). The wirelessdevice may directly communicate with the base station DU via wirelesschannels of at least one cell comprising a cell (Cell1). The wirelessdevice may communicate with the base station CU (e.g., the base stationCU-CP and/or the base station CU-UP) via the one or more base stationDUs comprising the base station DU.

In an example, the base station DU and the base station CU may beconnected to each other via at least one F1 interface comprising an F1control plane interface (F1-C) and/or an F1 user plane interface (F1-U).The base station DU may communicate with the base station CU-CP via theF1 control plane interface (F1-C). The base station DU may communicatewith the base station CU-UP via the F1 user plane interface (F1-U). Thebase station CU-CP may communicate with the base station CU-UP via an E1interface (E1). In an example, the base station may comprise a pluralityof base station DUs comprising the base station DU and/or the secondbase station DU. The base station CU may communicate with the pluralityof base station DUs via a plurality of F1 interfaces. The wirelessdevice may communicate with the plurality of base station DUs. Thewireless device may communicate with the base station CU via one or moreof the plurality of base station DUs. In an example, the base station DUor the second base station DU may provide a primary cell and/or a mastercell group for the wireless device. In an example, the base station DUor the second base station DU may provide a primary cell (e.g., primarysecondary cell) and/or a secondary cell group for the wireless device.In an example, the base station (e.g., the base station CU, the basestation CU-CP, and/or the base station CU-UP) may be connected to a corenetwork node/device (e.g., core network control plane: access andmobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF),mobility management entity (MME); and/or core network user plane: userplane function (UPF), serving gateway (S-GW)). In an example, the basestation (e.g., the base station CU, the base station CU-CP, and/or thebase station CU-UP) may be connected to a plurality of neighboring basestations comprising a second base station (gNB2 or eNB), for example,via an Xn interface or an X2 interface.

In an example, the FIG. 24 shows a flow diagram of an example procedureof the small data transmission (e.g., the early data transmission) ofthe wireless device when the base station comprises the base station DUand the base station CU that may comprise the base station CU-CP and thebase station CU-UP. A small data transmission (SDT) may be interpretedas at least one of an EDT, an MT-EDT, an MO-EDT, an uplink SDT, adownlink SDT, and/or the like.

In an example, as shown in FIG. 27, the base station CU may send, to thebase station DU, at least one message comprising configurationparameters for a small data transmission of the wireless device and/oran RRC message (e.g., RRC release message) for the wireless device totransition to an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. The basestation DU may send, to the wireless device, the RRC message. In anexample, the base station DU may perform the small data transmission ofthe wireless device based on the configuration parameters. The basestation CU may receive, from a network device, an indication message forthe wireless device. The indication message may indicate a transition ofthe wireless device out of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.The base station CU may determine to release the configurationparameters, configured to the base station DU, for the small datatransmission of the wireless device. The determining to release theconfiguration parameters may be based on the indication message from thenetwork device. The base station CU may send, to the base station DU andbased on the indication message, a notification message indicatingrelease of the configuration parameters for the small data transmissionof the wireless device. The base station DU may release/delete theconfiguration parameters, based on the notification message from thebase station CU.

In an example, as shown in FIG. 28, the base station DU may determine,based on at least one storing condition, to release the configurationparameters for the small data transmission of the wireless device.Determining to release the configuration parameters by the base stationDU may decrease inefficient resource configuration/utilization by makingthe determination based on activity of the wireless device and/orresource status of the base station DU. In an example, the at least onemessage may comprise the at least one storing condition for storing theconfiguration parameters for the small data transmission. The basestation DU may send, to the base station CU, a second notificationmessage indicating release of the configuration parameters for the smalldata transmission of the wireless device. The base station DU mayrelease/delete the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission of the wireless device.

In an example, the base station CU may send, to the base station DU, theat least one message comprising the configuration parameters for thesmall data transmission of the wireless device and/or the RRC message(e.g., RRC release message, RRC suspend message, etc.) for the wirelessdevice to transition to the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

In an example, the at least one message may comprise at least one of auser equipment (UE) context configuration/setup/modification requestmessage, a UE context release command message, and/or the like (e.g.,transmitted via the F1 interface). The at least one message may compriseat least one of a base station CU configuration update message, a basestation DU configuration update acknowledge message, and/or the like(e.g., transmitted via the F1 interface).

In an example, the at least one message may comprise an indication fieldrequesting to store the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission of the wireless device after the wireless devicetransitions to the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state (e.g., afterthe base station DU sends the RRC message (e.g., the RRC releasemessage) to the wireless device). Based on the indication field, thebase station DU may store the configuration parameters for the smalldata transmission of the wireless device after the wireless devicetransitions to the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state (e.g., afterthe base station DU sends the RRC message (e.g., the RRC releasemessage) to the wireless device).

In an example, the base station DU may stores the configurationparameters for the small data transmission of the wireless device afterthe wireless device transitions to the RRC inactive state or the RRCidle state (e.g., the transitioning to the RRC inactive state or the RRCidle state may be based on the RRC message (e.g., the RRC releasemessage)).

In an example, the at least one message may comprise secondconfiguration parameters for a small data transmission of the wirelessdevice. The second configuration parameters may be configured for asecond cell of the base station DU.

In an example, the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission may comprise at least one of: radio link control (RLC)layer configuration parameters for at least one bearer (e.g., at leastone logical channel) of the wireless device; parameters for configuredgrant resources (e.g., for the at least one bearer) for the wirelessdevice in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state; random accessparameters; physical layer configuration parameters; medium accesscontrol (MAC) layer configuration parameters; at least one uplink userplane transport layer information of the at least one bearer; and/or thelike. The at least one uplink user plane transport layer information maycomprise at least one of: a transport layer address, an uplink generalpacket radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnel identifier,and/or the like. The configured grant resources for the small datatransmission may comprise periodic radio resources (e.g., for uplinktransmissions) and/or preconfigured uplink resources (PURs).

In an example, the RLC layer configuration parameters may comprise aparameter for at least one of RLC modes comprising at least one of atransparent mode (TM) for uplink or downlink, an unacknowledge mode (UM)for uplink or downlink, an acknowledge mode (AM) for uplink or downlink,and/or the like. The RLC configuration parameters may comprise asequence number configuration parameter. The RLC configurationparameters may be configured for the at least one bearer and/or the atleast one logical channel associated with the small data transmission(e.g., uplink data and/or subsequent uplink/downlink data using thesmall data transmission).

In an example, the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission may be configured for at least one cell of the base stationDU. The configuration parameters for the small data transmission of thewireless device may comprise at least one of: a user equipmentidentifier of the wireless device; at least one cell identifier of theat least one cell that the small data transmission of the wirelessdevice is configured in; a configuration identifier indicating theconfiguration parameters for the small data transmission of the wirelessdevice; at least one bearer identifier of the at least one bearer; aresource identifier of the configured grant resources; and/or the like.

In an example, parameters for the configured grant resources (e.g., CGresources for the small data transmission, PURs) may comprise at leastone of: a periodicity, an offset, a size, a PUR RNTI (e.g., CG-RNTI),and/or the like. In an example, the configuration parameters maycomprise at least one of: a configuration identifier (e.g., ConfigID),an implicit release after indication (e.g., ImplicitReleaseAfter), starttime parameters (e.g., StartTimeParameters comprisingperiodicityAndOffset, startSFN, startSubFrame, hsfn-LSB-Info, etc.), anumber of occasions (e.g., NumOccasions), a RNTI (e.g., RNTI, CG-RNTI),a time alignment timer (e.g., TimeAlignmentTimer), a RSRP changethreshold (e.g., RSRP-ChangeThreshold comprising increaseThresh and/ordecreaseThresh), a response window timer value (e.g.,ResponseWindowTimer), MPDCCH configuration parameters (e.g.,MPDCCH-Config), a PDSCH frequency hopping parameter (e.g.,PDSCH-FreqHopping), PUCCH configuration parameters (e.g., PUCCH-Config),PUSCH configuration parameters (e.g., PUSCH-Config), and/or the like.

The hsfn-LSB-Info may indicate an LSB of an H-SFN corresponding to thelast subframe of the first transmission of RRC Connection Releasemessage containing Config. In an example, the GrantInfo may indicate ULgrant for transmission using the configured grant resources. A field setto ce-ModeA may indicate that a grant is for CE Mode A. A field set toce-ModeB may indicate that a grant is for CE Mode B. numRUs may indicateDCI field for PUSCH number of resource units. prbAllocationInfo mayindicate DCI field for PUSCH resource block assignment. mcs may indicateDCI field for PUSCH modulation and/or coding scheme. numRepetitions mayindicate DCI field for PUSCH repetition number. For CE Mode A, numRUsset to ‘00’ may indicate use of full-PRB resource allocation, otherwisesub-PRB resource allocation. For CE Mode B, subPRB-Allocation mayindicate whether sub-PRB resource allocation is used.

In an example, the ImplicitReleaseAfter may indicate a number ofconsecutive configured grant resource occasions that may be skippedbefore implicit release (e.g., value n2 corresponds to 2 resourceoccasions, value n4 corresponds to 4 resource occasions and so on). Inan example, the base station distributed unit may monitor whether anumber of skipped resources of the configured grant resourcesexceeds/reaches to the ImplicitReleaseAfter value to determine whetherthe configured grant resources is implicitly released.

In an example, the NumOccasions may indicate a number of configuredgrant resource occasions (e.g., value one corresponds to 1 configuredgrant resource occasion, and value infinite corresponds to an infinitenumber of configured grant resource occasions). In an example, thePDSCH-FreqHopping may indicate frequency hopping activation/deactivationfor PDSCH. The PeriodicityAndOffset may indicate a periodicity forconfigured grant resource occasions and/or time offset until the firstresource occasion. The PUSCH-FreqHopping may indicate frequency hoppingactivation/deactivation for PUSCH. The ResponseWindowTimer may indicateconfigured grant resource MPDCCH search space window duration (e.g.,value in subframes; value sf240 corresponds to 240 subframes, valuesf480 corresponds to 480 subframes and so on).

The RSRP-ChangeThreshold (e.g., comprising decreaseThresh and/orincreaseThresh) may indicate a threshold(s) of change in serving cellRSRP in dB for TA validation (e.g., value dB4 corresponds to 4 dB, valuedB6 corresponds to 6 dB and so on). When RSRP-ChangeThreshold is set tosetup, if decreaseThresh is absent the value of increaseThresh is alsoused for decreaseThresh.

The TimeAlignmentTimer may indicate an idle/inactive mode TA timer inseconds for TA validation (e.g., actual value=indicated value*configuredgrant resource periodicity). In an example, the base station distributedunit may monitor whether the TimeAlignmentTimer is expired and/orwhether a timing advance value that the wireless device maintains/keepsis valid to determine whether the configured grant resources are valid.

In an example, the MPDCCH configuration parameters (e.g., MPDCCH-Config)of the configuration parameters may comprise at least one of: an MPDCCHfrequency hopping parameter (e.g., mpdcch-FreqHopping), an MPDCCHnarrowband parameter (e.g., mpdcch-Narrowband), an MPDCCH PRB pairsconfiguration (e.g., mpdcch-PRB-PairsConfig comprising numberPRB-Pairsand/or resourceBlockAssignment), an MPDCCH number of repetition (e.g.,mpdcch-NumRepetition), an MPDCCH configured grant resource search spacestarting subframe/slot/symbol (e.g., mpdcch-StartSF-UESS (for fdd ortdd)), an MPDCCH search space offset (e.g., mpdcch-Offset-CG-SS), and/orthe like.

The mpdcch-FreqHopping may indicate frequency hoppingactivation/deactivation for MPDCCH. The mpdcch-Narrowband may indicatean index of a narrowband on which the wireless device monitors forMPDCCH. Field values (1..maxAvailNarrowBands-r13) correspond tonarrowband indices (0..maxAvailNarrowBands-r13-1). Thempdcch-NumRepetition may indicate a maximum number of repetitions levelsfor UE-SS for MPDCCH. The mpdcch-Offset-PUR-SS may indicate startingsubframes configuration of the MPDCCH search space for configured grantresources (e.g., the configured grant resources). Thempdcch-PRB-PairsConfig may indicate configuration of physicalresource-block pairs used for MPDCCH. mpdcch-PRB-Pairs may indicate anumber of PRB pairs (e.g., Value n2 corresponds to 2 PRB pairs; n4corresponds to 4 PRB pairs and so on). resourceBlockAssignment mayindicate an index to a specific combination of PRB pair for MPDCCH set.The mpdcch-StartSF-UESS may indicate a starting subframe/slot/symbolconfiguration for an MPDCCH configured grant resource search space(e.g., value v1 corresponds to 1, value v1dot5 corresponds to 1.5, andso on).

In an example, the PUCCH configuration parameters (e.g., PUCCH-Configfor the configured grant resources) of the configuration parameters maycomprise at least one of: a PUCCH resource offset (e.g., n1PUCCH-AN), aPUCCH number of repetitions (e.g., pucch-NumRepetitionCE-Format1),and/or the like. The n1PUCCH-AN may indicate UE-specific PUCCH ANresource offset. The pucch-NumRepetitionCE-Format1 may indicate a numberof PUCCH repetitions for PUCCH format 1/1a (e.g., when GrantInfo is setto ce-ModeA, value n1 corresponds to 1 repetition, value n2 correspondsto 2 repetitions, and so on; when GrantInfo is set to ce-ModeB, actualvalue corresponds to 4*indicated value).

In an example, the PUSCH configuration parameters (e.g., PUSCH-Configfor the configured grant resources) of the configuration parameters maycomprise at least one of: configured grant resource information (e.g.,ConfiguredGrantInfo comprising: for ce-mode-A: numRUs,prb-AllocationInfo, mcs, numRepetitions, etc.; for ce-moad-B:subPRB-Allocation, numRUs, prb-AllocationInfo, mcs, numRepetitions,etc.), a PUSCH frequency hopping parameter (e.g., PUSCH-FreqHopping forthe configured grant resources), a UE PUSCH PO (e.g., p0-UE-PUSCH), analpha value (e.g., alpha), a PUSCH cyclic shift parameter (e.g.,pusch-CyclicShift), a maximum PUSCH transport block size (e.g.,pusch-NB-MaxTBS), a PRB location (e.g., locationCE-ModeB), and/or thelike. In an example, the alpha may indicate a parameter, ac(3). ThelocationCE-ModeB may indicate PRB location within a narrowband whenPUSCH sub-PRB resource allocation is enabled for PUR grant in CE mode B.The p0-UE-PUSCH may indicate parameter P0_UE_PUSCH,c (3) (e.g., in unitdB). In an example, the pusch-CyclicShift may indicate parametern_(cs,λ) (e.g., value n0 corresponds to 0 and n6 corresponds to 6). Thepusch-NB-MaxTBS may indicate activation of 2984 bits maximum PUSCH TBSin 1.4 MHz in CE mode A.

In an example, the at least one message may comprise at least onestoring condition for storing by the base station DU the configurationparameters for the small data transmission. The at least one storingcondition may comprise at least one of: a resource status thresholdvalue (e.g., threshold value for traffic load, remaining resources,occupied resources, occupied hardware resources, radio resources, etc.)of the at least one cell or the base station DU, an inactive timeduration threshold value of the wireless device, a configuration timeduration threshold value, and/or the like. In an example, the basestation DU may release/delete the configuration parameters in responseto resources of the at least one cell or the base station DU being equalto or less than the resource status threshold value (e.g., forremaining/available resources) or in response to resources of the atleast one cell or the base station DU being equal to or larger than theresource status threshold value (e.g., for occupied/used resourcesand/or traffic load) (e.g., in response to satisfying the resourcestatus threshold value). The resource status threshold value may beindicated using at least one form of medium/low/high, percentage, ratio,absolute resource size value, and/or the like. The base station DU mayrelease/delete the configuration parameters in response to not receivinga signal from the wireless device for the inactive time durationthreshold value (e.g., or longer than the inactive time duration). Thebase station DU may release/delete the configuration parameters inresponse to storing the configuration parameters for the configurationtime duration threshold value (e.g., releasing after a time duration ofthe configuration time duration threshold value since receiving theconfiguration parameters by the base station DU from the base stationCU), for example, based on starting a timer associated with theconfiguration time duration threshold value in response to receiving theconfiguration parameters.

In an example, the RRC message (e.g., the RRC release/suspend messagefor the wireless device) may comprise suspend configuration parameters(e.g., suspend-config) for the wireless device to use in the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state. The suspend configurationparameters may comprise at least one of: the radio link control (RLC)layer configuration parameters for the at least one bearer of thewireless device; the parameters for the configured grant resources(e.g., for the at least one bearer) for the wireless device in the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state; the random access parameters; thephysical layer configuration parameters; the medium access control (MAC)layer configuration parameters; and/or the like.

In an example, the base station DU may send, to the wireless device, theRRC message (e.g., the RRC release/suspend message). In an example, theRRC message may comprise the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission. The base station DU may send the RRC message to thewireless device via the at least one cell.

In an example, the base station DU may perform the small datatransmission of the wireless device based on the configurationparameters. In an example, the base station DU may monitor one or morerandom access channel (e.g., random access resources and/or preamblesindicated/configured by the random access parameters of theconfiguration parameters) for small data transmission of the wirelessdevice. In an example, the base station DU may monitor the configuredgrant resources (e.g., indicated/configured by the configurationparameters) for small data transmission of the wireless device.

In an example, the base station DU may use the configuration parametersfor performing the small data transmission of the wireless device. Theperforming the small data transmission may comprise one or more of thefollowing operations. The base station DU may receive, from the wirelessdevice being in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state (e.g.,based on monitoring the one or more random access channel or theconfigured grant resources), uplink data associated with the small datatransmission and/or an RRC request message for the small datatransmission (e.g., the wireless device may perform the small datatransmission without sending the RRC request message to the basestation). The base station DU may send, to the base station CU, the RRCrequest message (e.g., if the wireless device sends the RRC requestmessage for the small data transmission). The base station DU mayprocess/decode the uplink data using the configuration parameters. Thebase station DU may send, to the base station CU and based on theconfiguration parameters, the processed uplink data. The sending theprocessed uplink data may comprise at least one of: sending to a basestation CU user plane (CU-UP) of the base station CU via an F1 userplane interface; sending to a base station CU control plane (CU-CP) ofthe base station CU via at least one F1 message over an F1 control planeinterface. In an example, the sending the processed uplink data to thebase station CU (e.g., the base station CU-UP) may comprise sending theprocessed uplink data to the transport layer address.

In an example, the base station DU may process/decode the uplink data(e.g., and/or subsequent uplink/downlink data associated with the smalldata transmission) using the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission. The processing/decoding the uplink data and/or thesubsequent uplink/downlink data may comprise decoding the uplink dataand/or the subsequent uplink/downlink data using the RLC layerconfiguration parameters. The processing/decoding the uplink and/or thesubsequent uplink/downlink data may comprise decoding/transitioning atleast one RLC PDU (e.g., MAC SDU) of the uplink data and/or thesubsequent uplink/downlink data to at least one RLC SDU (e.g., PDCP PDU)of the uplink data. The processing/decoding the uplink and/or thesubsequent uplink/downlink data may comprise performing combining (e.g.,de-segmenting and/or reversing packet segmentations) packets of theuplink data and/or the subsequent uplink/downlink data to make/generateat least one PDCP PDU, using the RLC layer configuration parameters.

In an example, the base station DU may send, to the base station CU(e.g., the base station CU-UP and/or the base station CU-CP), theprocessed uplink data (e.g., the processed subsequent uplink data). Thesending the processed uplink data by the base station DU to the basestation CU may comprise sending the processed uplink data to the basestation CU-UP. In an example, the base station DU may send, to thewireless device, processed subsequent downlink data. The sending theprocessed subsequent downlink data by the base station DU to thewireless device may comprise sending the processed subsequent downlinkdata using the small data transmission. The base station DU may receivethe subsequent downlink data from the base station CU and/or the basestation CU-UP (e.g., and/or the base station CU-CP). The subsequentdownlink data may be in response to sending the uplink data by thewireless device.

In an example, the base station CU may receive and/or forward the uplinkdata (e.g., the processed uplink data) and/or the subsequent uplink ordownlink data (e.g., the processed subsequent uplink data). In anexample, the base station CU may receive, from the wireless device andvia the base station DU, the uplink data (e.g., the processed uplinkdata) associated with the small data transmission. The base station CUmay transmit the uplink data to the core network device (e.g., UPF,S-GW; if the base station CU is a central unit of an anchor base stationand/or an old base station of the wireless device) or a second basestation (e.g., an anchor base station and/or an old base station of thewireless device).

In an example, the base station CU may receive the subsequent downlinkdata associated with the small data transmission from the core networkdevice or the second base station. The base station CU (e.g., the basestation CU-UP and/or the base station CU-CP) may transmit the subsequentdownlink data to the wireless device via the base station DU. In anexample, the subsequent downlink data may be response data (e.g., from adevice communicating with the wireless device) for the uplink data. Inan example, the base station CU may receive, from the wireless deviceand via the base station DU, the subsequent uplink data (e.g., theprocessed subsequent uplink data) associated with the small datatransmission. The base station CU may transmit the subsequent uplinkdata to the core network node or the second base station. In an example,the subsequent uplink data may be response data (e.g., from a devicecommunicating with the wireless device) to the subsequent downlink data

In an example, the base station CU may receive/transmit the uplink data,the subsequent uplink data, and/or the subsequent downlink data from/tothe base station DU via at least one tunnel (e.g., based onuplink/downlink tunnel identifier) between the base station CU and thebase station DU. The base station CU may receive/transmit the uplinkdata, the subsequent uplink data, and/or the subsequent downlink datafrom/to the core network node and/or the second base station via atleast one tunnel (e.g., based on uplink/downlink tunnel identifier)between the base station CU and the core network node and/or between thebase station CU and the second base station.

In an example, the base station CU may receive, from the network device,the indication message for the wireless device. The indication messagemay indicate a transition of the wireless device out of the RRC inactivestate or the RRC idle state. In an example, the indication message mayimplicitly or explicitly indicate the transition of the wireless deviceout of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

In an example, the indication message may comprise at least one of: aretrieve context request from the second base station (e.g., via the Xninterface, an X2 interface, etc.); a context release indication for thewireless device from the core network device or the second base station;a paging from the core network device (e.g., AMF, MME, SMF, etc.) or thesecond base station; an RRC establishment/reestablishment/resume requestfrom the wireless device via the base station DU or the second basestation DU; and/or the like. The paging from the core network device maycomprise a core network paging for the wireless device. The receivingthe core network paging may indicate that the core network may considerthat the wireless device is in an RRC idle state. The paging from thesecond base station DU may comprise a RAN paging for the wirelessdevice. The receiving the RAN paging may indicate that the wirelessdevice attached/connected (e.g., made an RRC connection) to the secondbase station. In an example, if the wireless device sends the RRCestablishment/reestablishment/resume request, the wireless device maytransition to an RRC connected state and/or the base station may releasethe configuration parameters for the small data transmission for thewireless device staying in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.In an example, receiving by the base station CU the retrieve contextrequest may indicate that the wireless device may send the RRCestablishment/reestablishment/resume request to the second base station.Based on the sending the RRC establishment/reestablishment/resumerequest, the wireless device may transition to an RRC connected stateand/or the base station may release the configuration parameters for thesmall data transmission for the wireless device staying in the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state.

In an example, the network device may comprise at least one of: the corenetwork device (e.g., comprising at least one of an access and mobilitymanagement function (AMF), a mobility management function (MME), asession management function (SMF), etc.), the second base station, thewireless device, the base station DU, the second base station DU, and/orthe like. In an example, the transition of the wireless device out ofthe RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state may comprise at least oneof: transition from the RRC inactive state to the RRC idle state or anRRC connected state; transition from the RRC idle state to the RRCconnected state; and/or the like.

In an example, the base station CU may determine to release theconfiguration parameters, configured to the base station DU, for thesmall data transmission of the wireless device. The determining torelease the configuration parameters may be based on the indicationmessage received from the network device. The determining to release theconfiguration parameters may be based on at least one of: the wirelessdevice transitioning out of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idlestate; available resources of the at least one cell or the base stationDU/CU being equal to or less than the resource status threshold value ofthe at least one storing condition; not receiving a signal from thewireless device for the inactive time duration threshold value of the atleast one storing condition; configuring the base station DU with theconfiguration parameters for the configuration time duration thresholdvalue of the at least one storing condition (e.g., the base station CUmay send the notification message after a time duration of theconfiguration time duration threshold value since/from sending theconfiguration parameters by the base station CU to the base station DU);and/or the like.

In an example, the base station CU may determine to release/delete theconfiguration parameters at the base station DU in response to resourcesof the at least one cell or the base station DU/CU being equal to orless than the resource status threshold value (e.g., forremaining/available resources) or in response to resources of the atleast one cell or the base station DU/CU being equal to or larger thanthe resource status threshold value (e.g., for occupied/used resourcesand/or traffic load) (e.g., in response to satisfying the resourcestatus threshold value). The resource status threshold value may use atleast one form of medium/low/high, percentage, ratio, absolute resourcesize value, and/or the like. The base station CU may determine torelease/delete the configuration parameters at the base station DU inresponse to not receiving a signal from the wireless device for theinactive time duration threshold value (e.g., or longer than theinactive time duration). The base station CU may determine torelease/delete the configuration parameters at the base station DU inresponse to the base station DU storing the configuration parameters forthe configuration time duration threshold value (e.g., releasing after atime duration of the configuration time duration threshold value sincesending the configuration parameters by the base station CU to the basestation DU), for example, based on starting a timer associated with theconfiguration time duration threshold value in response to sending theconfiguration parameters to the base station DU.

In an example, the base station CU may send, to the base station DU andbased on the indication message, the notification message indicatingrelease of the configuration parameters for the small data transmissionof the wireless device. The sending the notification message may be viathe F1 interface (e.g., F1-C interface). The notification message maycomprise at least one F1 interface message.

In an example, the sending the notification message by the base stationCU to the base station DU may be based on the determining by the basestation CU to release the configuration parameters (e.g., at the basestation DU), configured to the base station DU, for the small datatransmission of the wireless device.

In an example, the sending the notification message by the base stationCU to the base station DU may be based on at least one of: the wirelessdevice transitioning out of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idlestate; available resources of the at least one cell or the base stationDU/CU being equal to or less than the resource status threshold value;not receiving a signal from the wireless device for the inactive timeduration threshold value; configuring the base station DU with theconfiguration parameters for the configuration time duration thresholdvalue (e.g., the base station CU may send the notification message aftera time duration of the configuration time duration threshold valuesince/from sending the configuration parameters by the base station CUto the base station DU); and/or the like.

In an example, the notification message may comprise at least one of:the user equipment identifier of the wireless device; the at least onecell identifier of the at least one cell that the small datatransmission of the wireless device is configured in/at/for; theconfiguration identifier indicating the configuration parameters for thesmall data transmission of the wireless device; the at least one beareridentifier of the at least one bearer; the a resource identifier of theconfigured grant resources; and/or the like.

In an example, as shown in FIG. 29, the sending the notification messageby the base station CU to the base station DU may be based ondetermining by the base station CU that the wireless device isconfigured with the configuration parameters (e.g., one or more of theconfiguration parameters) for the small data transmission for the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state (e.g., at the time of receiving theindication message from the network device). The sending thenotification message by the base station CU to the base station DU maybe based on determining by the base station CU that the base station DUis configured with the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission of the wireless device being in the RRC inactive state orthe RRC idle state (e.g., at the time of receiving the indicationmessage from the network device). The sending the notification messageby the base station CU to the base station DU may be based ondetermining by the base station CU that the base station DUconsiders/knows/understands the wireless device being in the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state (e.g., at the time of receiving theindication message from the network device).

In an example, the notification message may comprise at least one of aninformation transfer message, a UE context release command message, a UEcontext modification request message, and/or the like (e.g., UE or thewireless device specific message). In an example, the notificationmessage may comprise at least one of a base station CU configurationupdate message, a base station DU configuration update acknowledgemessage, and/or the like (e.g., base station or cell specific message).

In an example, the base station DU may release/delete the configurationparameters. In an example, the base station DU mayrelease/delete/suspend, based on the notification message from the basestation CU, the configuration parameters for the small data transmissionof the wireless device. In an example, the base station DU may stopmonitoring for a small data transmission of the wireless device. In anexample, the base station DU may stop/suspend, based on the notificationmessage from the base station CU, monitoring for a small datatransmission of the wireless device. In an example, the base station DUmay send, to the base station CU and based on releasing/deleting theconfiguration parameters, a confirmation message (e.g., UE contextrelease complete message) indicating completion of releasing/deletingthe configuration parameters.

In an example, the base station DU may determine, based on at least onestoring condition, to release the configuration parameters for the smalldata transmission of the wireless device. In an example, the at leastone message may comprise the at least one storing condition for storingthe configuration parameters for the small data transmission.

The at least one storing condition may comprise at least one of: theresource status threshold value (e.g., threshold value for traffic load,remaining resources, occupied resources, occupied hardware resources,radio resources, etc.) of the at least one cell or the base station DU,the inactive time duration threshold value of the wireless device, theconfiguration time duration threshold value, and/or the like. The basestation DU may release/delete the configuration parameters in responseto resources of the at least one cell or the base station DU being equalto or less than the resource status threshold value (e.g., forremaining/available resources) or in response to resources of the atleast one cell or the base station DU being equal to or larger than theresource status threshold value (e.g., for occupied/used resourcesand/or traffic load) (e.g., in response to satisfying the resourcestatus threshold value). The base station DU may release/delete theconfiguration parameters in response to not receiving a signal from thewireless device for the inactive time duration threshold value (e.g., orlonger than the inactive time duration). The base station DU mayrelease/delete the configuration parameters in response to storing theconfiguration parameters for the configuration time duration thresholdvalue (e.g., releasing after a time duration of the configuration timeduration threshold value since receiving the configuration parameters bythe base station DU from the base station CU).

In an example, the base station DU may send, to the base station CU, thesecond notification message indicating release of the configurationparameters for the small data transmission of the wireless device.

In an example, the second notification message may comprise at least oneof: the user equipment identifier of the wireless device; the at leastone cell identifier of the at least one cell that the small datatransmission of the wireless device is configured in/at/for; theconfiguration identifier indicating the configuration parameters for thesmall data transmission of the wireless device; the at least one beareridentifier of the at least one bearer; the a resource identifier of theconfigured grant resources; and/or the like.

In an example, the second notification message may comprise at least oneof an information transfer message, a UE context releaserequest/complete message, a UE context modification required message,and/or the like (e.g., UE or the wireless device specific message). Inan example, the second notification message may comprise at least one ofa base station DU configuration update message, a base station CUconfiguration update acknowledge message, a base station DU resourcecoordination message, and/or the like (e.g., base station or cellspecific message).

In an example, the base station DU may release/delete the configurationparameters for the small data transmission of the wireless device, basedon determining to release the configuration parameters for the smalldata transmission of the wireless device. In an example, the basestation DU may stop monitoring for a small data transmission of thewireless device, based on determining to release the configurationparameters for the small data transmission of the wireless device.

In an example, the base station DU may receive, from the base stationCU, a release command message indicating to release the configurationparameters for the small data transmission of the wireless device. Therelease command message may be based on the second notification messagefrom the base station DU to the base station CU. The base station DU mayrelease/delete the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission of the wireless device based on the receiving the releasecommand message. The base station DU may stop monitoring for a smalldata transmission of the wireless device, based on the receiving therelease command message.

In an example, the base station DU may send, to the base station CU andbased on releasing/deleting the configuration parameters, a completemessage (e.g., UE context release complete message) indicatingcompletion of releasing/deleting the configuration parameters. Thecomplete message may be a response message to the release commandmessage.

In an example, as shown in FIG. 29, a base station CU may send, to abase station DU, at least one message comprising configurationparameters for a small data transmission of a wireless device and/or anRRC message (e.g., RRC release message) for the wireless device totransition to an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. The basestation CU may receive, from a network device, an indication message forthe wireless device. The indication message may indicate a transition ofthe wireless device out of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.The base station CU may send, to the base station DU and based on theindication message, a notification message indicating release of theconfiguration parameters for the small data transmission of the wirelessdevice.

In an example, the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission may comprise at least one of: radio link control (RLC)layer configuration parameters for at least one bearer of the wirelessdevice; parameters for configured grant resources (e.g., for the atleast one bearer) for the wireless device in the RRC inactive state orthe RRC idle state; random access parameters; physical layerconfiguration parameters; medium access control (MAC) layerconfiguration parameters; at least one uplink user plane transport layerinformation of the at least one bearer; and/or the like. The at leastone uplink user plane transport layer information may comprise at leastone of: a transport layer address, an uplink general packet radioservice (GPRS) tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnel identifier, and/or thelike. The configured grant resources for the small data transmission maycomprise periodic radio resources (e.g., for uplink transmissions)and/or preconfigured uplink resources (PURs).

In an example, the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission may be configured for at least one cell of the base stationDU. The configuration parameters for the small data transmission of thewireless device may comprise at least one of: a user equipmentidentifier of the wireless device; at least one cell identifier of theat least one cell that the small data transmission of the wirelessdevice is configured in; a configuration identifier indicating theconfiguration parameters for the small data transmission of the wirelessdevice; at least one bearer identifier of the at least one bearer; aresource identifier of the configured grant resources; and/or the like.

In an example, the at least one message may comprise secondconfiguration parameters for a small data transmission of the wirelessdevice. The second configuration parameters may be configured for asecond cell of the base station DU.

In an example, the base station DU may stores the configurationparameters for the small data transmission of the wireless device afterthe wireless device transitions to the RRC inactive state or the RRCidle state (e.g., the transitioning to the RRC inactive state or the RRCidle state may be based on the RRC message (e.g., the RRC releasemessage)).

In an example, the base station DU may use the configuration parametersfor performing the small data transmission of the wireless device. Theperforming the small data transmission may comprise one or more of thefollowing operations. The base station DU may receive, from the wirelessdevice being in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, uplinkdata associated with the small data transmission and/or an RRC requestmessage for the small data transmission (e.g., the wireless device mayperform the small data transmission without sending the RRC requestmessage to the base station). The base station DU may send, to the basestation CU, the RRC request message (e.g., if the wireless device sendsthe RRC request message for the small data transmission). The basestation DU may process/decode the uplink data using the configurationparameters. The base station DU may send, to the base station CU andbased on the configuration parameters, the processed uplink data. Thesending the processed uplink data may comprise at least one of: sendingto a base station CU user plane (CU-UP) of the base station CU via an F1user plane interface; sending to a base station CU control plane (CU-CP)of the base station CU via at least one Fl message over an F1 controlplane interface.

In an example, the at least one message may comprise at least one of auser equipment (UE) context configuration/setup/modification requestmessage, a UE context release command message, and/or the like. The atleast one message may comprise at least one of a base station CUconfiguration update message, a base station DU configuration updateacknowledge message, and/or the like.

In an example, the at least one message may comprise an indication fieldrequesting to store the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission of the wireless device after the wireless devicetransitions to the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state (e.g., afterthe base station DU sends the RRC message (e.g., the RRC releasemessage) to the wireless device). Based on the indication field, thebase station DU may store the configuration parameters for the smalldata transmission of the wireless device after the wireless devicetransitions to the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state (e.g., afterthe base station DU sends the RRC message (e.g., the RRC releasemessage) to the wireless device).

In an example, the at least one message may comprise at least onestoring condition for storing the configuration parameters for the smalldata transmission. The at least one storing condition may comprise atleast one of: a resource status threshold value (e.g., threshold valuefor traffic load, remaining resources, occupied resources, occupiedhardware resources, radio resources, etc.) of the at least one cell orthe base station DU, an inactive time duration threshold value of thewireless device, a configuration time duration threshold value, and/orthe like. The base station DU may release/delete the configurationparameters in response to resources of the at least one cell or the basestation DU being equal to or less than the resource status thresholdvalue (e.g., for remaining/available resources) or in response toresources of the at least one cell or the base station DU being equal toor larger than the resource status threshold value (e.g., foroccupied/used resources and/or traffic load) (e.g., in response tosatisfying the resource status threshold value). The base station DU mayrelease/delete the configuration parameters in response to not receivinga signal from the wireless device for the inactive time durationthreshold value (e.g., or longer than the inactive time duration). Thebase station DU may release/delete the configuration parameters inresponse to storing the configuration parameters for the configurationtime duration threshold value (e.g., releasing after a time duration ofthe configuration time duration threshold value since receiving theconfiguration parameters by the base station DU from the base stationCU).

In an example, the RRC message may comprise suspend configurationparameters (e.g., suspend-config) for the wireless device to use in theRRC inactive state or the RRC idle state. The suspend configurationparameters may comprise at least one of: radio link control (RLC) layerconfiguration parameters for at least one bearer of the wireless device;parameters for the configured grant resources (e.g., for the at leastone bearer) for the wireless device in the RRC inactive state or the RRCidle state; random access parameters; physical layer configurationparameters; medium access control (MAC) layer configuration parameters;and/or the like.

In an example, the indication message may comprise at least one of: aretrieve context request from the second base station; a context releaseindication from the core network device or the second base station; apaging from the core network device (e.g., AMF, MME, SMF, etc.) or thesecond base station; an RRC establishment/reestablishment/resume requestfrom the wireless device via the base station DU or a second basestation DU; and/or the like.

In an example, the network device may comprise at least one of: the corenetwork device (e.g., comprising at least one of an access and mobilitymanagement function (AMF), a mobility management function (MME), asession management function (SMF), etc.), the second base station, thewireless device, the base station DU, the second base station DU, and/orthe like.

In an example, the transition of the wireless device out of the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state may comprise at least one of:transition from the RRC inactive state to the RRC idle state or an RRCconnected state; transition from the RRC idle state to the RRC connectedstate; and/or the like. In an example, the indication message mayimplicitly or explicitly indicate the transition of the wireless deviceout of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

In an example, the notification message may comprise at least one of:the user equipment identifier of the wireless device; the at least onecell identifier of the at least one cell that the small datatransmission of the wireless device is configured in/at/for; theconfiguration identifier indicating the configuration parameters for thesmall data transmission of the wireless device; the at least one beareridentifier of the at least one bearer; the a resource identifier of theconfigured grant resources; and/or the like.

In an example, the sending the notification message by the base stationCU to the base station DU may be based on at least one of: the wirelessdevice transitioning out of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idlestate; available resources of the at least one cell or the base stationDU/CU being equal to or less than a resource status threshold value; notreceiving a signal from the wireless device for an inactive timeduration threshold value; configuring the base station DU with theconfiguration parameters for a configuration time duration thresholdvalue (e.g., the base station CU may send the notification message aftera time duration of the configuration time duration threshold valuesince/from sending the configuration parameters by the base station CUto the base station DU); and/or the like.

In an example, the sending the notification message by the base stationCU to the base station DU may be based on determining by the basestation CU that the wireless device is configured with the configurationparameters (e.g., one or more of the configuration parameters) for thesmall data transmission for the RRC inactive state or the RRC idlestate. The sending the notification message by the base station CU tothe base station DU may be based on determining by the base station CUthat the base station DU is configured with the configuration parametersfor the small data transmission of the wireless device being in the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state. The sending the notificationmessage by the base station CU to the base station DU may be based ondetermining by the base station CU that the base station DUconsiders/knows/understands the wireless device being in the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state.

In an example, the notification message may comprise at least one of aninformation transfer message, a UE context release command message, a UEcontext modification request message, and/or the like (e.g., UE or thewireless device specific message). In an example, the notificationmessage may comprise at least one of a base station CU configurationupdate message, a base station DU configuration update acknowledgemessage, and/or the like (e.g., base station or cell specific message).In an example, the base station DU may release/delete/suspend, based onthe notification message, the configuration parameters for the smalldata transmission of the wireless device. In an example, the basestation may comprise the base station CU (e.g., comprising the basestation CU-CP, the base station CU-UP, etc.), the base station DU, thesecond base station DU, and/or the like.

In an example, a base station CU may send, to a base station DU, atleast one message comprising: configuration parameters for a small datatransmission of a wireless device and/or an RRC message for the wirelessdevice to transition to an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. Thebase station may send, to the base station DU, a notification messageindicating release of the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission configured to be used by the wireless device in the RRCinactive state or the RRC idle state.

In an example, the notification message may be based on an indicationmessage from a network device. The sending the notification message bythe base station CU to the base station DU may be based on at least oneof: the wireless device transitioning out of the RRC inactive state orthe RRC idle state; available resources of at least one cell or the basestation DU/CU being equal to or less than a resource status thresholdvalue; not receiving a signal from the wireless device for an inactivetime duration threshold value; configuring the base station DU with theconfiguration parameters for a configuration time duration thresholdvalue (e.g., the base station CU may send the notification message aftera time duration of the configuration time duration threshold valuesince/from sending the configuration parameters by the base station CUto the base station DU).

In an example, as shown in FIG. 30, a base station DU receive from abase station CU, at least one message comprising configurationparameters for a small data transmission of a wireless device and/or anRRC message for the wireless device to transition to an RRC inactivestate or an RRC idle state. The base station DU may send, to thewireless device, the RRC message. The base station DU may receive, fromthe base station CU and based on a transition of the wireless device outof the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, a notification messageindicating release of the configuration parameters for the small datatransmission of the wireless device. The base station DU mayrelease/delete the configuration parameters.

In an example, a base station DU may receive, from a base station CU, atleast one message comprising configuration parameters for a small datatransmission of a wireless device and/or an RRC message for the wirelessdevice to transition to an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. Thebase station DU may send, to the wireless device, the RRC message. Thebase station DU may perform the small data transmission with thewireless device based on the configuration parameters. The base stationDU may determine, based on at least one storing condition, to releasethe configuration parameters for the small data transmission of thewireless device. The base station DU may send, to the base station CU, asecond notification message indicating release of the configurationparameters for the small data transmission of the wireless device. Thebase station DU may release/delete the configuration parameters for thesmall data transmission of the wireless device.

In an example, the at least one message may comprise the at least onestoring condition for storing the configuration parameters for the smalldata transmission. The at least one storing condition may comprise atleast one of: a resource status threshold value (e.g., threshold valuefor traffic load, remaining resources, occupied resources, occupiedhardware resources, radio resources, etc.) of the at least one cell orthe base station DU, an inactive time duration threshold value of thewireless device, a configuration time duration threshold value, and/orthe like. The base station DU may release/delete the configurationparameters in response to resources of the at least one cell or the basestation DU being equal to or less than the resource status thresholdvalue (e.g., for remaining/available resources) or in response toresources of the at least one cell or the base station DU being equal toor larger than the resource status threshold value (e.g., foroccupied/used resources and/or traffic load) (e.g., in response tosatisfying the resource status threshold value). The base station DU mayrelease/delete the configuration parameters in response to not receivinga signal from the wireless device for the inactive time durationthreshold value (e.g., or longer than the inactive time duration). Thebase station DU may release/delete the configuration parameters inresponse to storing the configuration parameters for the configurationtime duration threshold value (e.g., releasing after a time duration ofthe configuration time duration threshold value since receiving theconfiguration parameters by the base station DU from the base stationCU).

In an example, a base station CU may send, to a base station DU, atleast one message comprising configuration parameters for a small datatransmission of a wireless device and/or an RRC message for the wirelessdevice to transition to an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state. Thebase station CU may receive, from the base station DU, a secondnotification message indicating release of the configuration parametersfor the small data transmission of the wireless device.

1. A method comprising: sending, by a base station central unit (CU) toa base station distributed unit (DU), a notification indicating releaseof configuration parameters for a small data transmission (SDT)procedure of a wireless device.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thenotification is based on at least one of: a resource status thresholdvalue of at least one cell of the base station DU, wherein the basestation DU releases the configuration parameters in response toavailable resources of the at least one cell or of the base station DUbeing equal to or less than the resource status threshold value; aninactive time duration threshold value of the wireless device, whereinthe base station DU releases the configuration parameters in response tonot receiving a signal from the wireless device for the inactive timeduration threshold value; or a configuration time duration thresholdvalue, wherein the base station DU releases the configuration parametersin response to storing the configuration parameters for theconfiguration time duration threshold value.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the sending is based on a transition of the wireless device to aradio resource control (RRC) connected state from at least one of a RRCinactive state or an RRC idle state.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising sending, by the base station CU to the base station DU, amessage comprising: the configuration parameters; and a RRC message forthe wireless device to transition to at least one of the RRC inactivestate or the RRC idle state.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein themessage comprises at least one of: a user equipment (UE) contextconfiguration request; a UE context setup request; a UE contextmodification request; or a UE context release command.
 6. The method ofclaim 4, wherein the message comprises at least one of: a base stationCU configuration update message; or a base station DU configurationupdate acknowledge message.
 7. The method of claim 4, wherein: themessage comprises an indication field requesting to store theconfiguration parameters after the wireless device transitions to atleast one of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state; and based onthe indication field, the base station DU stores the configurationparameters after the wireless device transitions to the RRC inactivestate or the RRC idle state.
 8. The method of claim 4, wherein themessage further comprises one or more storing conditions for storing theconfiguration parameters, one or more storing conditions comprising atleast one of: a resource status threshold value of at least one cell ofthe base station DU, wherein the base station DU releases theconfiguration parameters in response to available resources of the atleast one cell or of the base station DU being equal to or less than theresource status threshold value; an inactive time duration thresholdvalue of the wireless device, wherein the base station DU releases theconfiguration parameters in response to not receiving a signal from thewireless device for the inactive time duration threshold value; or aconfiguration time duration threshold value, wherein the base station DUreleases the configuration parameters in response to storing theconfiguration parameters for the configuration time duration thresholdvalue.
 9. The method of claim 4, wherein the RRC message comprisessuspend configuration parameters for the wireless device to use in atleast one of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, the suspendconfiguration parameters comprising at least one of: radio link control(RLC) layer configuration parameters for at least one bearer of thewireless device; parameters for configured grant resources for thewireless device in at least one of the RRC inactive state or the RRCidle state; random access parameters; physical layer configurationparameters; or medium access control (MAC) layer configurationparameters.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the configurationparameters are associated with one or more cells of the base station DU.11. A method comprising: receiving, by a base station distributed unit(DU) from a base station central unit (CU), a notification indicatingrelease of configuration parameters for a small data transmission (SDT)procedure of a wireless device, wherein the notification is based on atransition of the wireless device from a radio resource control (RRC)connected state to at least one of a RRC inactive state or an RRC idlestate.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising releasing theconfiguration parameters.
 13. The method of claim 11, further comprisingreceiving, by the base station DU from the base station CU, a messagecomprising: the configuration parameters; and a RRC message for thewireless device to transition to at least one of the RRC inactive stateor the RRC idle state.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprisingsending the RRC message to the wireless device.
 15. The method of claim13, wherein the message further comprises at least one of: a userequipment (UE) context configuration request; a UE context setuprequest; a UE context modification request; or a UE context releasecommand.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein the message furthercomprises at least one of: a base station CU configuration updatemessage; or a base station DU configuration update acknowledge message.17. The method of claim 13, wherein the message further comprises anindication field requesting to store the configuration parameters afterthe wireless device transitions to at least one of the RRC inactivestate or the RRC idle state.
 18. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising storing, based on the indication field, the configurationparameters after the wireless device transitions to at least one of theRRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.
 19. The method of claim 13,wherein the message further comprises one or more storing conditions forstoring the configuration parameters, one or more storing conditionscomprising at least one of: a resource status threshold value of atleast one cell of the base station DU, wherein the base station DUreleases the configuration parameters in response to available resourcesof the at least one cell or of the base station DU being equal to orless than the resource status threshold value; an inactive time durationthreshold value of the wireless device, wherein the base station DUreleases the configuration parameters in response to not receiving asignal from the wireless device for the inactive time duration thresholdvalue; or a configuration time duration threshold value, wherein thebase station DU releases the configuration parameters in response tostoring the configuration parameters for the configuration time durationthreshold value.
 20. The method of claim 13, wherein the RRC messagecomprises suspend configuration parameters for the wireless device touse in at least one of the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, thesuspend configuration parameters comprising at least one of: radio linkcontrol (RLC) layer configuration parameters for at least one bearer ofthe wireless device; parameters for configured grant resources for thewireless device in at least one of the RRC inactive state or the RRCidle state; random access parameters; physical layer configurationparameters; or medium access control (MAC) layer configurationparameters.